The What’s on in Joburg Picks: The Top 5 Documentaries to See at Encounters Festival

The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival makes a big return with another stellar lineup of 58 moving documentaries set to screen in selected cinemas and venues across Joburg, Pretoria and Cape Town from 4 to 14 June 2026.

Though this year’s selection of documentaries from across the globe are all must-sees, these are the top five festival titles on our radar this 2026:

Notes from the Underground

Directed by Adrian Van Wyk & Chris Kets | South Africa | 2026 | 89 min.

For the people of Cape Town’s Cape Flats, Hip Hop connects them to the region’s ancient energy while providing liberation from both the structures of apartheid South Africa and the neocolonialism that continues to define life in the city for many.

Featuring some of Cape Town’s Hip Hop talent, including Ready D, Isaac Mutant, and Mutant’s daughter, Lyrix, this powerful documentary tells the history of Cape Hip Hop, which it uses as both the medium and the message.

As one of the interviewees notes, “Hip Hop provided a space in post-apartheid South Africa for people to find each other after centuries of oppression”, an aspect that Notes From The Underground, with its collective archive of voices, memory, and street-corner culture, celebrates and explores in great depth.

Cost: R90pp, book online

When: Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn – Friday, 12 June at 6pm | The Bioscope – Sunday, 14 June at 4pm
Where: Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Commercial, Fehrsen St, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria | The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley, Milpark

Amadou & Mariam – The Blind Couple From Mali

Directed by Ryan Marley | Canada | 2025 | 88 min.

Malian musicians Amadou and Mariam are one of Africa’s most successful pop exports. The married couple, both of whom lost their sight as young children, have performed to audiences all over the globe, spreading their unique brand of infectious joy and attracting the attention of some of the pop world’s leading musicians.

That same joy imbues this intimately made film, which chronicles the course of their career over the last five decades. Sadly, Amadou died in 2025 at the age of 70 – as we learn in the first few minutes of the film – but the couple’s songs live on, a powerful testament to music’s transcendent, unifying power.

The film also looks at Mali’s troubled political landscape, which has, in the past decade, been significantly fractured by the arrival of jihadists, whose first steps towards entrenching social control included banning music, a particularly radical proposition given its centrality to Malian life.

Cost: R90pp, book online

When: The Bioscope – Saturday, 6 June at 6.30pm | Rosebank Nouveau – Tuesday, 9 June at 8.15pm | Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Commercial – Friday, 12 June at 8pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley, Milpark | Rosebank Nouveau, Rosebank Mall, 50 Bath Ave, Rosebank | Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Commercial, Fehrsen St, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria

Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment

Directed by Andreas Pichler | Germany | 2025 | 90 min.

Elon Musk – Unveiled takes a close look at the rise of Elon Musk and Tesla, focusing on the safety issues with Tesla’s self-driving algorithms that have resulted in numerous fatalities. While Musk has consistently lauded his vision of a utopian future – and insists that he is the only one who will get us there – the film looks at the web of deception and misinformation that he has had to weave in order to convince the media and his shareholders of the inevitability of that future.

Including interviews with whistleblowers, victims, and high-ranking former Tesla employees, the result is an illuminating but disturbing portrait of a man who once seemed to have a genuine concern for the planet but has become intoxicated with his own power. Beyond the machinations at Tesla, the film also looks at Musk’s SpaceX programme and his takeover of Twitter, as well as his enthusiastic alignment with Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.

Cost: R90pp, book online

When: Friday, 12 June at 8.30pm
Where: Rosebank Nouveau, Rosebank Mall, 50 Bath Ave, Rosebank

The Eyes of Ghana

Directed by Ben Proudfoot | United Kingdom/United States/Ghana | 2025 | 90 min.

Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana and a key figure in Africa’s liberation movement. Nkrumah was also a great lover of cinema and recognised the extraordinary political power of the moving image.

To this end, he set up cinemas all around Ghana, while ensuring that his every move was documented on film, courtesy of his personal cinematographer Chris Hesse, who – together with clips from the vast archive he shot – forms the vibrant centre of this delightful film.

The Eyes of Ghana is an extraordinary document, not just of Nkrumah’s life and Ghana’s independence, but also of a 20th century that is starting to fade from view, even as its events continue to cascade like dominoes into our current age. A deeply felt love letter to the power of cinema, both as an art form and store of historical record, the film is a must-see for anyone with a devotional love for film.

Cost: R90pp, book online

When: Rosebank Nouveau – Friday, 5 June at 6pm | Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Commercial – Saturday, 13 June at 6pm
Where: Rosebank Nouveau, Rosebank Mall, 50 Bath Ave, Rosebank | Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Commercial, Fehrsen St, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria

All About the Money

Directed by Sinéad O’Shea | Ireland | 2026 | 95 min.

The son of one of America’s richest families, James ‘Fergie’ Chambers is also an avowed communist. Highly critical of the cult of capitalism, he funds a small communitarian community in Massachusetts, although in all fairness to him – and despite his evident charisma – he has sufficient self-awareness to avoid creating a cult in his own image.

But things get real and Fergie’s commitment is tested when he helps to fund and organise protests in response to America’s involvement in the Gaza war. Like a surreal blend of Succession and Anarchy 101, All About the Money is a compelling portrait of a man for whom vast wealth had provided a buffer against virtually all consequences, as he himself freely admits.

With his blend of political awareness and egoically blind impulsiveness, Fergie is an engaging figure to watch and filmmaker Sinead O’Shea (who gave us last year’s Edna O’Brien biopic) does a remarkable job of connecting with him, while maintaining her critical distance.

Cost: R90pp, book online

When: Friday, 12 June at 8pm
Where: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley, Milpark