Jozi Film Festival: South African Short Documentaries

The Jozi Film Festival is an annual event that showcases the latest films made by South African and international filmmakers in one of Africa’s most vibrant cities – Johannesburg. The sixth Jozi Film Festival will highlight the very best in filmmaking, presenting a multi-genre slate of films from emerging and established filmmakers, exploring a broad range of topics that affect our communities and stir our hearts and minds.

Tickets: R50

8MM South 

Directed by: Richard Finn Gregory

10min

The advent of 8mm film marked the first time that ordinary people had the tools to create moving pictures of their lives. This also coincided with the 1960s and 70s in South Africa, a tumultuous period where few people could afford these cameras. The home movies that exist from this period therefore give fascinating insight into where these people chose to point their camera’s gaze, in an era before television launched in the country. 
Created exclusively from this film format and from this country, 8mm SOUTH is an experimental documentary that fuses found footage, personal archives, and antique store finds to create a birth-to-death journey of homemade imagery, including weddings, funerals, odd pets, the military, old lovers, twins, masks, and rare footage of an initiation ritual.

Every Face Tells a Strory

Directed by: Brandon Barnard

5min

As a photographer, I have had the rare opportunity to move through landscapes, cultures and people's lives freezing moments in time. 

A great photograph needs no explanation. The intent of this documentary is to explore the lives behind and around my photographs. Through my lens, I tell the story of how I went about capturing these incredible images and portraits photographed in Johannesburg (South Africa) - my city, my home. I use my camera as a means of connecting with people, creating a space where we can find common ground and open up a visual dialogue when language is a barrier. I want to create something meaningful with my work and passion.

When looking at a portrait, I always ask myself 2 questions:

1) What does this picture say about the subject? What is the story? 
2) What does this picture say about me, the photographer?

My camera has taken me into worlds I would never have discovered. And when I say "worlds", I don't just mean countries or tangible places. I mean emotional, cultural, emotive worlds: worlds of movement and purpose. A great photograph can make you feel what the subject is feeling at that moment without translating it into words. I can show you that picture, and ask you: what does this picture make you feel?

These Objects, Those Memories

Directed by: Roger Horn

29min 30s

"These Objects, Those Memories" is a split-screen film focused on material culture, specifically, that of three long-term Zimbabwean female migrants currently residing in Cape Town, South Africa. Through an exploration of the objects brought with them, objects sent back to their homeland, objects left behind and their associated memories; stories of joy, loss, and hopes for a return to Zimbabwe are examined.

Rule of Nature (Namibia)

Directed by: Dieter Primig

25min

Adapt or die? Following a young woman female tribe member of the only few remaining
indigenous bushmen of Namibia, we get a uniquely personal and dramatic insight on her
people's story and their threatening situation of total extinction.