Mandisa Zitha is not only an important part of the fabric of the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, but also the South African film industry. The festival director continues to play a critical part in the success of the films and the filmmakers she and her team champion each year.

Zitha’s first tenure as festival director ran from 2007 until 2012. She then took on a 5-year stint at UCT as Alumni Officer, and headlined strategic projects at WESGRO in Cape Town. But Encounters’ purpose and her love of the documentary genre saw her return to the position of Festival Director in 2019.

Over her 21-year tenure, her direction managed to position Encounters as the most important and longest-running film festival in the country.

In person, Zitha commands a quiet, modest grace that flows well with her encyclopedic knowledge of the festival and indstry. Her steely and focused vision ranks her as a key thought leader in the South African film industry. Benn Ndzoyiya had the chance to chat with Zitha ahead of the 2025 edition of the festival as she delved into the touchpoints for this year.

Benn Ndzoyiya: We see that there are five central themes for the Encounters Festival this year. Can you walk us through that?

Mandisa Zitha: Encounters doesn’t operate every year with a particular theme in mind from the outset. We select what is happening in the documentary industry, what is coming out, what is trending, and what are the most talked-about films. And so in selecting more organically, we realised that there were themes coming through from the films. So the films really generated the thinking behind the five themes.

This year is a particularly serious year, just globally in terms of what’s happening in the world. But the films reflect the seriousness and big topics of the world.

For example, The Frightening Reality of Now really reflects the state of the world and a world in flux and in crisis. And Ways of Learning reflects the many ways that we are learning now and the impact of new technologies. And Standing Up to Power is about the different ways people, individuals, and movements are standing up to power in many different ways. Memory and Trauma is about the good and the bad things that people around the world have gone through from the legacies of colonisation and wars to more, I guess, more personal issues. And then Art and Impact about the celebration of art and its impact on the world, its lasting impact on the world.

How does the programming process work? Do filmmakers submit their work, or do you open a call for entries? Could you just explain a bit more about that?

Mandisa Zitha: So we have the call for entries that goes out six months ahead, and here we get about 550 entries. Then we also do a lot of research into the films. So we are kind of clued up on the festivals around the world, other documentary festivals around the world, filmmakers whose work we know very well, both on the continent and outside.

But we also built up relationships with distributors and sales agents from around the world have over the 27 years, and they sent us tons and tons of catalogues. So we are in this, like, multi-pronged process for months. And just watching a lot of documentaries, getting volunteer viewers to help us get through the over 550 films, and start shortlisting.

In South Africa alone, we have a very diverse tapestry and diverse narratives. Do you sometimes find it challenging to strike a balance between all the contributions from South African filmmakers, the rest coming from the continent and also the ones coming from abroad? Because there are urgent conversations all around…

Mandisa Zitha: Many years ago, the co-founders of the festival decided that, because we are a South African and an international-facing documentary festival, we would have equitable representation of African films and international films.

If you look at our programme, it’s almost pretty much 50% African filmmakers and 50% from the rest of the world. We understand that there’s a variety of themes and issues that come through, but representation is important. And we also look carefully at the countries the films are coming from. It’s difficult to do so, but we try our best to have representation from all corners of the world, including even on the continent. We have films from North Africa, from West Africa, East Africa, and from Southern Africa, as close as Zimbabwe.

So with all that in mind, who is the Encounters Festival goer? What are they looking for, and are you ticking their boxes?

Mandisa Zitha: The thing about South Africa is that the audience is always diverse. First, it wasn’t so diverse, but over the years, it’s become a bit younger. There are more women. There’s a grouping of younger professionals and graduates who are quite engaged with issues of the world and they have an opinion. And they like to be engaged intellectually.

Especially because the festival provides that space. You’re actually in community with like-minded people who also enjoy that particular genre because it’s only documentaries. You’re also interested in the conversation after the screenings, the Q&As and the panel discussions. And you want to listen in on that, and you want to engage with that. So you like the community aspect of a documentary that a festival provides.

And then we cater for that, for the diversity by ensuring that our films hit all the spots, you know. We always have films about art, politics, biopics, like profile documentaries that profile famous people. It could even be about hip hop or poetry. We try to hit all the points that represent the different tastes of South African audiences.

When did you join the Encounters Festival, and what are your thoughts on your tenure so far?

Mandisa Zitha: The most memorable thing for me was our experience during COVID, where we had to quickly pivot the festival to digital platforms. And we did that with such great quality! We managed to get a huge audience to tune in online and experience the festival digitally. That was a big deal for us, having achieved that with our limited resources.

And then also, we’ve hosted amazing people at the festival. We’ve hosted Mama Winnie Mandela, Dennis Goldberg, Al Bissex, Laila Khaled, and the Palestinian bomber. That was a big deal. We’ve hosted amazing personalities and icons, some of them living, some of them not with us anymore, who’ve had films made about them, so I’m very proud of that.

I know that you’ve been working with some of the venues for a number of years. Are those quite strategic?

Mandisa Zitha: It is strategic and it is not. We do know that we don’t have enough independent theatres in the country. So we only have one in Joburg and one in Cape Town that we can work with. So that is strategic. We want to be in independent theatres. The festival is about community, so we love spaces that promote community, where people can stay after the screening and talk about the films with others who are interested. So we definitely need more spaces like that that we can afford.

And then the other spaces we are at the malls, where you’re sticking to a code because they have the technological capabilities and facilities to host us. Sometimes it’s just more accessible for some people to go to the complexes for cinema.

How do you stay in touch with all the happenings of the industry, of the documentary film industry?

Mandisa Zitha: We’re quite engaged with the documentary industry, not only locally, but also on the continent. We network with other institutions of documentary on the continent. And I think there’s more and more of that happening now. There’s more conversation and more connectedness on the continent.

We wanna nurture ways of operating and working amongst each other. And we’re also connected to European organisations in a way that promotes us as a festival and secures opportunities for local filmmakers. For example, we’ve recently joined as a festival partner at CanDocs, the big Cannes Film Festival in France. And they have a documentary section called Ken Docs, and we are the only African festival on that platform.

So that’s good representation for us. But we’re also a training and development institute. We actively raise money to run training programs and development programs. We run a form literacy club for young people and children under 14. And we train smaller film festivals from other provinces on how to run festivals and curate. We do a lot of work in that area at the grassroots level.

Do you think African creators are pushing themselves hard enough in terms of creativity and storytelling? And what are the industry challenges?

Mandisa Zitha: I think there’s definitely a growth in documentary filmmaking in the country. There are amazing films right now at the festival that are pushing the boundaries in one way or another. I think the major challenge to innovation and the elevation of the genre is always funding, having access for filmmakers to make better quality films that require more funding, that require more time in development and in script writing. I think we need to nurture young talent or new voices in the space more. Either through mentorships or just supporting new voices to come into the space more so that we have more diverse stories that we can showcase at the festival.

Is there enough support at the governmental and corporate level in documentaries?

Mandisa Zitha: Not at all, not at all. As a matter of fact, we, as a festival, struggle to get corporate funding. You will see from our logos, we really don’t even have any cash sponsorship from corporates. I think it’s a hard sell. We’re not like the music festivals attracting hundreds and thousands of people. But our work has a huge impact. And if we were better supported, I think we’d have tickets selling out and people really engaging with the genre, which could be a benefit to the local industry.

So that’s the biggest struggle. Documentaries deal with serious issues. They deal with social justice issues, and sometimes that’s not attractive. I mean, documentaries have gained in popularity globally. The streaming platforms are showing more documentaries. People are watching more documentaries. So it’s no longer this poor cousin of fiction or this sideline genre. It’s gaining popularity, and we need to nurture that locally as well, even at the cinemas.

Have there been any talks to take the Encounters Festival as a concept to other parts of Africa?

Mandisa Zitha: I don’t know if there’s a demand, but I think it would be interesting to cooperate more with other African film festivals. Whether we exchange films and inter-travel amongst each other’s festivals, because it’s really difficult to get mobility funding for African filmmakers to travel to other festivals on the continent.

It’s actually easier to travel to Europe than to travel to other festivals on the continent. So we are at the beginning of nurturing that we are part of an African festival network that we’re trying to nurture. You know, connectedness, so that we are developing and growing the industry on the continent.

How to book tickets for the Encounters Festival 2025

The 2025 edition of the Encounters Festival takes place across a varied and accessible selection of venues. These include Ster-Kinekor at The Zone @ Rosebank, The Bioscope Independent Cinema at 44 Stanley in Milpark, and Goethe-Institut Johannesburg in Parkwood.

See the full list of films and the festival schedule here.

Cost: Free entry for panels, discussions and Q&As. Film tickets are from R90pp, book online

When: 19 to 29 June 2025. Various times
Where: The Zone, 177 Oxford Rd, Rosebank | The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark | Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, 119 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood

Website: encounters.co.za
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @encountersdoc
Facebook: @encountersdoc

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