ENCOUNTERS 2026: SHORTS BLOCK - Salt Of The Earth

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Now celebrating its 28th year as a festival, Encounters returns to The Bioscope once again with screenings at The Bioscope from 5 - 14 June. Tickets are R90. 

SEE THE FULL BIOSCOPE ENCOUNTERS PROGRAM HERE.

Taste of the Land (7-9PG)

Dir. Nondumiso Masache | South Africa | 2026 | 16 min.

In Johannesburg, urban growers Siwe Ntombela and Forest Ramushwana reclaim indigenous foodways, exploring how ancestral knowledge, ecological care, and urban cultivation reconnect land, memory, and community while shaping sustainable futures.

VET vannie Land (10PG)

Dirs. Danielle McDonald & Konrad Helgard Raubenheimer | South Africa | 2025 | 30min.

In Richtersveld, South Africa, botanists and conservationists battle organised syndicates poaching rare succulents, exposing a global black market threatening the biodiversity of one of the world’s most ancient ecosystems.

A Place called Paradise  (10PG)

Dir. Rae Human & Rudi Lippert | South Africa | 2025 | 15 min

A young couple leave Cape Town for rural Suurbraak, seeking belonging and healing as they embrace farming and community life, where love, nature, and time transform their sense of home.

VOICES FROM THE ABYSS (10PG)

Dirs. Irving Serrano & Victor Rejón| México | 2025 | 23 min.

On the cliffsides of La Quebrada in Acapulco, divers plunge 100 feet into the ocean, where precision, bodily risk, and faith converge in a ritual of suspended, fleeting transcendence.