docLOVE invites you to a screening of MOTHER CITY

The Documentary Filmmakers Association in collaboration with the Bioscope Independent Cinema invites you to this month's docLOVE screening of MOTHER CITY. The screening will be followed by a special Q&A session with guest speakers.

Date: 14 November 2025 @ 13:30

Venue: The Bioscope Independent Cinema, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg

Booking: Purchase a "R20 Cafe Voucher" to reserve your seat for this screening. This will get you R20 off your Bioscope Cafe bill on this day.

About the film:

Mother City is a deeply human, often heart-breaking and at times humorous look at the global politics of urbanism. Against the backdrop of a country celebrating three decades of democracy, Mother City exposes the deep fault lines that still exist in South Africa because successive governments since 1994 have not offered solutions to the most urgent and explosive issue of land and ownership, rendering generations of working class people homeless. Mother City charts a defiant war against government and property developers in one of the world’s most unequal cities. 

The story is told by Nkosikhona Swartbooi, activist and organiser of the justice movement “Reclaim the City” (RTC). For him the battle for housing is deeply personal. Raised by his grandmother in a shack in Khayelitsha, he saw the humiliation she faced as a domestic worker in Sea Point. Mother City documents, over six years, how he grows from a young activist to a father trying to balance his political work with family commitments. It is a classic David and Goliath battle as activists take on property power and politics in a city still disfigured by spatial apartheid.

Directors: Miki Redelinghuys & Pearlie Joubert

Duration: 103 minutes

About docLOVE:

docLOVE hosts free monthly screenings around South Africa, celebrating and promoting the power of documentary film. We bring thought-provoking, relevant and important issues and topics to the fore and create an interactive space for engagement and debate, hosting facilitated discussions after each screening, featuring special guest speakers.

For more about the DFA please visit: https://docfilmsa.com/