Encounters SA documentary festival 2024 — where and what to see

The popular documentary festival is back with its 26th instalment of international films, which will be showing in limited theatres in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and the pop-up Sunshine Cinema venue in a few other locations across the country.

The festival is screening 46 documentaries that deal with pressing issues from around the world, exploring topics like mental health in the Black community, climate change, generational trauma, global conflicts, and sexual violence, as well as preserving untold stories.

From the 46 films featured ranging from short films to full-length feature films, 43 films are premiering in South Africa for the first time and 14 are making their world debut.

Over half of the documentaries focus on African stories from across the continent.

The festival is also showcasing a handful of award-winning films, which have won or been nominated for awards at notable international film festivals like Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival’s opening film Mother City follows a group of activists from Cape Town’s Reclaim the City movement, in a powerful fight to secure public housing for low-income residents in the inner city.

Here are other notable films to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA87jthLZWk

Hollywoodgate: Friday 28 June, 8.45 pm in Cape Town and Friday 21 June, 7.00 pm in Johannesburg

From Egyptian director Ibrahim Nash’at comes a masterful look at the aftermath of the United States’ messy withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the swift rise to power of the Taliban.

Read more in Daily Maverick: US-Afghanistan misadventure: Why things went so horribly wrong

Nash’at gained access to the inner workings of the Taliban regime through a high-ranking commander of the Air Force as the unit took over an abandoned CIA base in Kabul.

While he remained cautious of the constructed reality the Taliban presented to him, he was able to capture a glimpse of their takeover, now freshly equipped with weapons left behind by the CIA.

“I hope it also shows that the Taliban understands what propaganda is now and the war has been beneficial to them in many ways, not just getting all the weapons but also having the strongest weapon, which is propaganda. They tried to use cinema through me, but cinema this time survived through them,” Nash’at said.

Hollywoodgate (Photo: Ibrahim Nash'at)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gK0ZXzSVj0

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat: Friday 21 June, 8.30 pm in Cape Town and Friday 28 June, 7.30 pm in Johannesburg

The jazz-filled score and the free-flowing structure will transport viewers into the decadent yet tumultuous world of the 1960s this narrative is centred on.

The Belgian film by director Johan Grimonprez juxtaposes the lush musical sounds of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Nina Simone with the covert operations the CIA used them for without their knowledge and the suspicious assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War and the decolonisation movement storming Africa, political upheaval and music meet in a rhythmic dance of history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3t39_UXLn8

Johatsu - Into Thin Air: Sunday 23 June, 7.30 pm in Cape Town and Thursday 27 June, 8.45 pm in Johannesburg, both followed by post-screening Q&A discussions

Directed by Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori, this Japanese film explores the mystery of vanishing citizens known as Johatsu or “the evaporated,” part of the 80,000 that disappear every year, who choose to abandon their old lives in favour of starting over without a trace.

Johatsu. (Photo: Supplied)

The documentary captures an inside look — from all angles — of the phenomenon, talking with the family members of the vanished, people who have chosen to disappear, and the illicit “night movers” who facilitate these disappearances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1NWR_degm8

London Recruits: Thursday 27 June, 7.00 pm in Cape Town and Tuesday 25 June in Johannesburg, 7.00 pm, both followed by a post-screening panel discussion

London Recruits is a South African film by director Gordon Main that recently won Best Documentary at the 2024 Joburg Film Festival. The documentary combines dramatic reenactment with contemporary interviews to unfold the shared history of more than 60 white people recruited from London to pose as tourists while secretly working with the ANC in the ‘60s and ‘70s to rebuild their underground operations.

Tumelo Nkwanca as Joyce Sikakane Rankin in the Rand Daily Mail's segregated black 'township' newsroom in London Recruits. (Photo: Supplied)

Carrying explosives in false-bottom suitcases and equally explosive subversive pamphlets, these idealistic young Londoners were immersed into a radical new world working as Freedom fighters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPeX6Xw0_v4

A Fidai Film: Sunday 30 June, 3.00 pm in Khayelitsha; Sunday 23 June, 1.00 pm in Johannesburg; and Saturday 29 June, 12:00 pm in Durban at the Bat Centre

A Fidai Film (Photo: Supplied)

Palestinian director Kamal Aljafari reconstructs the history of his homeland using retrieved film and photos once stolen by the IDF from Beirut’s Palestine Research Center in the summer of 1982. Aljafari reclaims these memories and transforms them into a beautiful melange exploring forgotten history.

The Bioscope screening in Johannesburg will also host a post-film panel discussion “Notes on the Archives” featuring Zen Marie and Zara Julius. DM

The Bioscope Independent Cinema and The Zone @ Rosebank Cinema 3 in Johannesburg will be showing select films, as well as The Labia Theater and Ster Kinekor V&A in Cape Town. Free screenings of a smaller range of the films will be shown at the Bertha Movie House in the Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha with RSVP required.

Tickets can be purchased through the Encounters website for R80.