docLOVE presents a free screening of MILISUTHANDO

The Bioscope and the Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA) are proud to host this month's free docLOVE screening: MILISUTHANDO. This screening is made possible with the support of the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP4) and the Gauteng Film Commission.

Genre: Documentary

Directed by: Milisuthando Bongela

Duration: 1 hr 55 mins

The screening will be followed by a special Q&A session with the director, Milisuthando Bongela.

Synopsis:

Milisuthando Bongela grew up during Apartheid but didn't know it was happening until it was over. This film, in which she is both the central protagonist and the director, reconstructs that experience and its impact on the years that follow. Startlingly original and making rich use of archival footage and home videos, the film reveals the blurry nature of the boundaries that lie between object and subject, between the personal and the broadly historic, and between the twin fictions of citizen and country. Set in past and present South Africa, including the no-longer existing Transkei, Milisuthando combines a deeply poetic coming-of-age narrative with a complex meditation on power, fear, intimacy, love and race, as well as the ways in which both countries and individual identities are constructed. In the process, she expands the boundaries of the documentary form.

Milisuthando Bongela is an award-winning writer, editor, cultural worker and artist. Her career began in the fashion industry but the last 15 years has seen her traverse the worlds of music, art, media and film – continually turning towards indigenous knowledge. For 3 years she was Arts Editor for the Mail & Guardian‘s Friday section and was host and co-producer of the podcast Umoya: On African Spirituality with Athambile Masola. After 8 years, she has recently completed her first film, a personal essay documentary titled MILISUTHANDO which had its world premier at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. She is an inaugural fellow of the 2020 Adobe Women at Sundance Fellowship.

About docLOVE: 

The Documentary Filmmakers Association's docLOVE programme hosts free screenings on a monthly basis at several venues around the country. docLOVE seeks to celebrate documentary film, promoting the power of this format to bring thought-provoking, relevant and important content to the fore. docLOVE creates an interactive space for engagement by facilitating discussions on issues raised in the films. 

The current docLOVE programme is made possible by the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP4), administered by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), and the Gauteng Film Commission.