Testimonials
DFM Access Participant
Sam Soko
Sam Soko is a documentary filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya. With his captivating approach to socio-political storytelling, he has developed content and collaborated with firebrand artists worldwide. He’s the co-founder of LBx Africa, a Kenyan production company that works with local and international filmmakers to bring uniquely African perspectives to global audiences. His first feature documentary project, Softie, premiered at the 2020 Sundance film festival, winning a special jury prize for editing. He’s an outspoken defender of freedom of expression and has taken part in global conversations on strengthening storytelling in an increasingly precarious world
Nicole Schafer
Nicole Schafer is an independent filmmaker based in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands. Her recently released feature documentary, “Buddha in Africa” has screened at festivals around the world and has been broadcast on international networks such as ARTE, Al Jazeera, NHK VPRO, across Africa on AfriDocs and in South Africa on Showmax . The film has won numerous local and international awards including most recently, “Best feature documentary” and “Best Achievement in Directing” in the 2020 South African Film and Television Awards. Nicole has lived in Malawi where she worked as a video journalist producing stories for an international news network. She has worked in different areas of the local and international film and television industry and has an MFA in Film and Television from UCT (2015). Nicole is the director of the production company, Thinking Strings Media, which is aimed at supporting the production of creative feature documentaries and is well positioned to facilitate documentary as well as feature film shoots in KwaZulu-Natal. Nicole works as a documentary producer, director, cinematographer and editor.
Claire Louis
Clare Louis returned to South Africa in 2014 after spending 18 years abroad to complete her MA in Digital Arts [3D-Animation] at WITs University. Prior to launching her own production company, she progressed through the ranks to become an animation and live-action producer at Coal Stove Pictures in Johannesburg until 2016. She is now the owner of Katanimate Animation Studios based in her home town of Durban. Currently, they are working on the pilot episode of 3D animated TV series Time Sliders and the development of a preschool show called Knittyville. Claire is an active member of AnimationSA and has extensive experience from creating & developing projects, script-reading, presenting concepts to broadcasters, attending international markets and managing teams to bring in projects on budget and on time.
Carlos Yuri Ceunick
His short documentary film “”Dona Mónica”” received a special mention from the jury at the Saint-Louis International Documentary Film Festival in Senegal (2020).His first feature length documentary “”The Master’s Plan”” is an official selection at AFRIFF 2021. Received financial support from Hot Docs – Blue Ice Fund, VAF (Flanders Film Fund), RTBF, Creative Europe. It was pitched at Africadoc (2016), MiradasDoc (2018) and Durban FilmMart (2018) where it received the HDBIG – Outstanding Storyteller Award. Currently working on the production of his second feature length documentary project “”The New Man””. It was pitched at Ouaga Film Lab (2020). Received financial support from Fond Jeune Creation Francophone, World Cinema Fund and DocA.
He was selected in 2021 for the EFM DocSalon Toolbox program (Berlinale), SDI connecting stories program and Nipkow program (Berlin).
Milisuthando Bongela
Maia Lekow
Aderonke Adeola
Aderonke Adeola is an award-winning director and producer. Her debut film Awani won a UNESCO prize and was supported by the Ford Foundation and the Africa Women Development Fund. Her films have a unique focus on the marginalised; specifically, women. She has an upcoming film that recently won a Kosinima Grant. In 2022 she was selected to participate in Berlinale Talents Durban and won best project for Beyond Fela.
Camelia Gadhgadhi
Camélia Gadhgadhi is an French-Algerian filmmaker developing her first feature documentary film “Bitter Seed”, produced by AMOK Films.
Deidre Jantjies
Deidre Jantjies is a cultural activist passionate about the historical stories of women. She is the founder of Na Aap Productions, a fully integrated, broad based production company, screening untold stories of Southern Africa. Jantjies has a long history of stage performing, she took these skills and started writing her own stories into short and feature films. Working extensively on narratives closest to her heart. Stories that include indigenous heritage and traditions that have been forgotten, is the most important dialogue that she wants to create.
She identified that women needed a voice to represent themselves creatively. This was a great way to start a company that stood for African writers, directors, and producers. In 2020, the company partnered with an Indian storyteller and produced Love Thy Neighbour, an animation short film that won international awards. In the same year, Na Aap also produced Tweegesig, an online comedy series that featured on Facebook and Stories in die Wind (www.storiesindiewind.co.za), the first Nama web series that tells the indigenous story of a young girl finding her purpose.
Joash Omondi
My name is Joash Omondi, a Kenyan filmmaker passionate about using film to frame social and political issues. My latest project, Jua Kali, is an ode to the overlooked informal workers of Kenya, whose labour keeps the privileged masses afloat. My guiding principle is that the sincerest view of any society is gleaned from those at the bottom.
Khosie Dali
Khosie Dali is a producer based in Cape Town. She is the founder of Miss K Productions, a boutique production house specializing in narrative fiction. She is an alumnus at Durban Film Mart Business Lab, Rotterdam Lab, EAVE Producers Lab and Realness Institute. Over the last decade she has worked on international and local TV series, commercials and feature films.
As of this date, Dali has released one feature film – John Gutierrez’s minimalist heist thriller Sons of the Sea. Sons of the Sea had its international premier at CineQuest Film Festival in Los Angeles and its African Premier at the Durban Film Festival, where it won Best SA Feature Film.
The next feature film to be produced is Pieces – Imran Hamdulay’s political family drama that follows the journey of a single mother in a working-class suburb on the Cape Flats. Pieces is a moral drama that seeks to examine the patriarchy, gender roles and social responsibility in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Lola Akins
Lola Aikins is an award-winning Sierra Leonean born South African film director, visual development artist and a 2D animator. She studied 2D animation at LISAA in Paris, France. Whilst growing up, she saw a lack of representation of stories and characters that she could relate to or looked like her. As a result, in her work she pushes for authentic African aesthetics to help build the identity of animation coming from Africa. As a freelance visual development artist and animator she has worked on a number of short films, TV series as well as feature films in development. The teaser trailer for ‘NALEDI’ won her the 2023 Faku’gesi award for best animated short film. Lola was selected as one of The Mail and Guardian’s 2023 top 200 Young South Africans in the Film and Media category.
Minenhle Luthuli
Zippy Kimundu
Zippy is an award-winning Kenyan Filmmaker who has been working in the film and television industry across continents as a director and editor for over a decade. She co-directed a short documentary, A Fork, A Spoon and A Knight with Mira Nair for Tribeca Film Institute’s ‘Power of Word Series’, and was the assistant editor on the Disney film Queen of Katwe. Zippy holds a masters in Fine Arts from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a film educator for under-represented communities at I’ll Tell You My Story, who give storytelling workshops in Africa for teenage refugee girls. Besides this, she is the founder of Afrofilms International, a women-led film and TV production company and creative collective based in Nairobi and Kilifi, Kenya, and is currently working to ignite political consciousness, and action, across continents. Her short films have screened internationally and she continues to create both fiction and non-fiction content globally.
