ENCOUNTERS 2024: BLACK PEOPLE DON'T GET DEPRESSED

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Now over 25 years old as a festival, Encounters returns to The Bioscope once again with screenings from 21 June - 30 July. Tickets are R80. For more information on the festival as a whole, please visit encounters.co.za

SEE THE FULL BIOSCOPE SCHEDULE FOR ENCOUNTERS HERE

BLACK PEOPLE DON'T GET DEPRESSED (with Q&A)

Sara Chitambo-Hatira | South Africa/Canada/Zambia | 2024 | 82 min

As the title of this engaging documentary suggests, depression is often unacknowledged in indigenous Southern African cultures and is instead written off as something that is ‘for white people’. But, as the film makes abundantly clear, the impact of mental health is a fundamentally human experience that transcends all boundaries, racial or otherwise. In Black People Don't Get Depressed, a filmmaker despairing for her mental peace embarks on the journey of facing her depression – but only when it becomes clear that it is something she can no longer avoid or deny. As she moves inwards towards herself, she speaks to other people about their mental health and their experience of depression as Africans – and what they go through to try and alleviate their suffering. This is a timely and vital film for South Africa, where issues around mental health cut across all layers of society.