The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival makes a big return with a robust lineup of compelling and artfully created documentaries set to screen in selected cinemas and venues across Joburg and Cape Town from 19 to 29 June 2025.
This year also marks the 27th anniversary of Africa’s premier documentary festival, and the team has taken extra care to curate a memorable lineup of feature films. Here are 10 titles to put on your radar and start booking right now.
Sam Nzima – A Journey Through His Lens
Directed by Nhlanhla Mthethwa | South Africa | 2024 | 74 min
Director Nhlanhla Mthethwa goes behind the lens of Sam Nzima in this intimate snapshot of the photographer’s life. Nzima is known for creating one of history’s most recognised photographs, the haunting image of Hector Pieterson during the 1976 Soweto Uprising.
Through the events surrounding June 16, 1976, the film chronicles Nzima’s life, from his early days in rural Transvaal to his rise as a key figure in South African journalism, at the frontlines of media that forever changed the political landscape of South Africa. Nzima’s historic photograph, which laid bare the brutal truths of apartheid and shattered the government’s carefully crafted propaganda, led to his forced exile. Despite this, Nzima did not retain copyright of his images until decades later, revealing a new wave of exploitation and control of the black narrative.
A panel discussion with the director will take place after the screening.
Cost: R90pp, book via The Bioscope
When: Thursday, 26 June at 8pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg
This is Ballroom
Directed by Juru & Vitã | Brazil | 2024 | 92 min
This is Ballroom is a moving glimpse into the world of Brazilian drag, birthed in the drag communities of New York in the late 1960s. Directed by queer Brazilian artists Juru and Vitã, this documentary charts the culture of Brazilian voguing as it blossoms into the hugely expressive ballroom culture of contemporary Rio de Janeiro and its suburbs. Its early American roots can be traced back to two Black queens who left the white-dominated pageant contests of New York City behind to create their own space of radical queer freedom.
This Is Ballroom is centred around a real-life ball in a warehouse in Rio, staged specifically for the film. Expect an empathetic spotlight on its trans-led cast, while also revealing simmering racial and gender tensions.
Cost: R90pp, book via Ster Kinekor
When: Thursday, 26 June at 8.15pm
Where: The Zone @ Rosebank, 177 Oxford Road, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Shifting Baselines
Directed by Julien Elie | Canada | 100 min
The title Shifting Baselines might seem a little obscure at first, given that the film is mostly focused on Elon Musk’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, space exploration and rocket launches in general. But as the documentary weaves together its various theme threads—including the massive impact that the launches have on both the environment and the atmosphere, as well as on the feasibility of future launch missions—everything coheres into a multilayered meditation on the romance and dangers of space travel.
Director Julien Elie conceived this highly thought-provoking film to reflect on how each generation perceives the natural environment of their own time as the ‘normal’ baseline, leading to a gradually increased tolerance for environmental degradation.
A panel discussion will take place after the screening.
Cost: R90pp, book via The Bioscope
When: Tuesday, 24 June at 8:30pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark
Capturing Water
Directed by Rehad Desai | South Africa | 80 min
In 2018, Cape Town faced one of its worst droughts, which prompted urgent conversations of an impending crisis, ‘Day Zero’, when water reservoirs in the city were projected to drop to a dangerously low level of 13.5%. Despite a number of conservation efforts led by local activists and scientists and policies to limit water wastage, the city remains vulnerable to water shortages as deeper systemic issues continue to threaten water security.
Capturing Water looks at the social, political, and environmental challenges at the crux of this ongoing crisis, gathering insights from activists, academics, community leaders, politicians, scientists, and government officials, to mobilise legislation and protection against the exploitation, bureaucracy and neo-colonialism which threatens a fundamental human right: access to water.
Cost: R90pp, book via The Bioscope
When: Friday, 27 June at 8:30pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg
The Thinking Game
Directed by Greg Kohs | United States | 2024 | 84 min
Although artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded into public consciousness over the last two years, it has a long history. The early days of computing have accelerated AI into concrete reality over the course of the nearly three decades since IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat Garry Kasparov, the world champion, in a six-game set.
DeepMind is a leading AI lab owned by Google, following in Deep Blue’s footsteps but with the intent of producing an intelligence that can perform beyond the specialist realm of challenges such as chess.
In unravelling the mysteries of artificial general intelligence and unlocking its infinite possibilities, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis sees all the world’s problems as potentially solvable. Told from inside DeepMind’s London headquarters, The Thinking Game follows the journey of Hassabis and his team as they relentlessly pursue an artificial intelligence that matches or surpasses human abilities on a wide range of tasks.
Cost: R90pp, book via Ster Kinekor
When: Saturday, 21 June at 8pm
Where: The Zone @ Rosebank, 177 Oxford Road, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Ahmad Alive
Directed by Yusuf Omar and Aurelia Driver | South Africa/Palestine | 21 min
Gazan Vlogger Ahmad Ghunaim offers a raw and unfiltered portrayal of life in the aftermath of 7 October 2023 through his TikTok account. In a time when foreign journalists are barred from entering Gaza, Ahmad Alive is a vital witness, revealing the realities of war through the lens of a civilian turned war correspondent.
Ahmad documents Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza, with bombs cascading from the sky, generations of homes reduced to rubble, and thousands of lives lost. Amidst unimaginable fear and destruction, Ahmad records his journey as a refugee, capturing moments of resilience, loss and survival. Through personal archives and mobile journalism, the film delivers an intimate, urgent perspective on the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
This film is screened as part of Shorts Block, which includes four short documentaries. A panel discussion will take place after the screening.
Cost: R90pp, book via The Bioscope
When: Saurday, 28 June at 6pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg
Where Zebus Speak French
Directed by Nantenaina Lova | France, Madagascar, Germany and Burkina Faso | 2023 | 103 min
Set on the rice paddies of Antananarivo in Madagascar, Where Zebus Speak French explores the ongoing resistance of subsistence farmers against the political and economic interests of China’s ‘Presidential Project’ developments, which continue to threaten their ancestral land and way of life. At the heart of the film lies a searing exploration of modern colonialism, forced displacement and exploitation, revealing a deeper corruption and betrayal of the very people the government claims to serve and protect.
Punctuated by daily life on the paddies and rich folkloric mythologies expressed in stories performed through traditional puppetry, the film shows how Malagasy culture, identity, and history remain inseparable from the land they are fighting to protect.
Cost: R90pp, book via The Bioscope
When: Saturday, 21 June at 6pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg
Pouring Water on Troubled Oil
Directed by Nariman Massoumi | United Kingdom and Iran | 2023 | 23 min
Pouring Water on Troubled Oil is a poetic documentary chronicling Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’s 1951 journey to Iran. Commissioned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company to script a film endorsing its oil operations in Abadan, Thomas instead discovers the unrest of a nation, as he witnesses the political tension, poverty and culture of exploitation steeped in the oil trade.
This hard-hitting film features narration by Michael Sheen bringing Thomas’s words to life, and layered with archival imagery and immersive soundscapes, the film transforms spoken word into a lament for truth. Pouring Water on Troubled Oil reflects on the enduring legacies of colonialism and imperialism, contrasting Iranian lived experience with the propaganda promoted by the now-rebranded British Petroleum (BP).
The film is screened as part of Shorts Block, which includes four short documentaries.
Cost: R90pp, book via Ster Kinekor
When: Thursday, 26 June at 6:15pm
Where: The Zone @ Rosebank, 177 Oxford Road, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Albie – A Strange Alchemy
Directed by Sara Gouveia | South Africa | 2025 | 90 min
Albie: A Strange Alchemy is one of the most anticipated releases screening at the Encounters Festival this year, Shaped by exile, loss and a brutal bomb attack, Albie Sachs stands as one of South Africa’s most revered anti-apartheid activists and visionary thinkers. Sachs survived imprisonment and a near-fatal assassination attempt by the apartheid regime, and helped draft a constitution that would guide the nation into a new era of dignity, equality and progress.
Now, turning 90, he reflects on the strange alchemy of idealism and realism that shaped both his life and a nation’s rebirth. Through lyrical imagery, intimate archival footage and sweeping reflections, the film traces a life where law meets art, struggle gives rise to beauty, and revolutions are born from ruins.
Cost: R90pp, book via Ster Kinekor
When: Tuesday, 24 June at 6:15pm
Where: The Zone @ Rosebank, 177 Oxford Road, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Fear Fokol
Directed by Tuva Björk | Sweden | 2025 | 15 min
Fear Fokol is a deep dive into Joburg’s booming private security industry, driven by fear, inequality and mistrust in the ‘other’. With more than 550,000 private security guards, outnumbering the police and military combined, the industry has become a powerful force in protecting South Africa’s residents.
Swedish filmmaker Tuva Björk takes us on a night-time journey into the anxieties and fears of Johannesburg’s affluent residents while revealing the fragile illusion of safety they provide, while reflecting on ideas of ownership, protection and vulnerability. Through a voyeuristic lens, the film examines the social divide that fuels the demand for private protection within an industry built on the failure of public protection and commodified fear.
The film is screened as part of Shorts Block, which includes four short documentaries.
Cost: R90pp, book via The Bioscope
When: Sunday, 21 June at 1pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg
Need to know before you go
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
