Centre for Film and Media Studies - UCT

02/06/2026

Two not-to-be-missed masterclasees!

The CFMS and UCT TV are hosting two inspiring masterclasses as part of the

All information you need below:

📣 Friday 5 June:

Elon Musk Unveiled: Producing Insights With Yara Hueck Costa
Time: 10:30-12:00
Venue: UCT TV STUDIOS
Cost: Free with RSVP (Link on Encounters Website)

A masterclass for filmmakers and producers on crafting investigative documentaries while managing legal risk, vulnerable subjects and archive refusals. Producer Yara Heuck Costa delves into the psychological aspects of investigative documentaries and teaches practical tools for legal contingency planning, trauma informed care and multi-jurisdictional workflows to get high-risk stories confidently onto screen. Facilitated by Marion Seymour. Snacks will be served. All Welcome.

📣 Thursday 11 June
Producing the Impossible Film, Masterclass with Miguel Eek

Time: 10:30-12:00
Venue: UCT TV STUDIOS
Cost: Free with RSVP (Link on Encounters Website)

In this practical masterclass with Spanish filmmaker Miguel Eek (Amílcar) we examine the complexities of sustaining a project for over a decade. We explore the long research and development process, how to navigate the difficulty of financing a poetic political film, co-production structures when several countries are involved, how to be agile when discovering new materials that reshape the narrative and how to maintain the energy of a film spanning over 10 years of documenting. Moderated by Pablo Pinedo Bóveda. Snacks will be served. All Welcome.

21/05/2026

E-E-A-T-ing up SEO

Simon Wilkes, MD of SIP Media Solutions, came by the CFMS today with two familiar faces - recent CFMS Hons graduates, Anna Ferraz and Zach Heynes . Anna and Zach told us about their internship and working experiences at SIP Media, and Simon let us in on some SEO secrets and beat practices for journalism!

21/05/2026

Film in Africa started as a course at UCT’s Centre for Film and Media Studies. Now it’s a podcast.

Every episode centres on a particular film or theme from African cinema — and foregrounds the voices, perspectives, and expertise of people from the continent itself.

Hosted by Dylan Valley, Film in Africa brings together filmmakers, scholars, students, and critics to ask the questions that matter: What does African cinema look like on its own terms? Who gets to tell these stories? And why does any of it matter?

Film in Africa is a podcast rooted in UCT’s Centre for Film and Media Studies. Each episode explores a film or theme from African cinema — with voices from the continent itself. Hosted by Dylan Valley.

Pull up a chair. We’re just getting started.

Film in Africa started as a course at UCT's Centre for Film and Med...

21/05/2026

Read Around the Continent 📖 

This month, Read Around the Continent Book Club is focusing on Zimbabwe. Bring your own book or borrow one from Rondebosch Library.

Venue: Rondebosch Library

Date: Wednesday, 27 May 2026

Time: 16:30 – 18:00 (arrive at 16:15 for membership sign-up or scan the QR Code)

All are welcome, and refreshments will be served.

19/05/2026

Relooting: African Futurist Style

The Digital Media Sociology Lab, in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, hosted a discussion and gameplay session of “Relooted” (2026). Relooted is produced by Nyamkop and focuses on reclaiming African cultural items from Western Museums.
The session was led by Dr Danielle Becker with input from DMS Lab PHD candidate Nkululeko Makhubu, as they discussed digital reparations, speculative restitution, digital culture and representation.

This was also the launch of the new Games in Africa research thread housed in the DMS Lab, which will explore and examine games as cultural sites of knowledge.

19/05/2026

“This year, we hold each other.”

“With open hands and courageous hearts, Encounters bring stories that see, soften, and stay. Stories that ask us to look closer, listen deeper, and love harder.”

This year’s Encounters Film Festival programme brings together powerful documentaries, post-screening panels, masterclasses, workshops, festival talks, and community screenings from around the world.

🎬 Three films from our amazing UCT Students will be screened at this year’s festival:

Nomandla Vilakazi’s “Bones” - https://encounters.co.za/film/bones/

Kai Reynolds’ “Before They Sold the Sky” - https://encounters.co.za/film/before-they-sold-the-sky/

Kwei Shun-Yu’s “Talking To Family” - https://encounters.co.za/film/talking-to-family/

📅 Encounters runs from 4–14 June 2026 across Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria.

🎟️ Tickets and full programme available at https://encounters.co.za/

18/05/2026

Turning point for SA scholarship and education!

“Hold my Bompie!” Prof Williams exclaimed as Prof Haupt introduced the new Kaaps Woriboek that was launched and showcased at the University of Cape Town on Friday. Almost 50 people, eager to witness this groundbreaking new work, packed the CFMS seminar room to get a first look at a book that is set to change the lives of hundreds of thousands in South Africa who, up until now, have been told that their language is not recognised as a “real” one.

Prof Quentin Williams was joined by Dr Theo(dore) Rodrigues, Dr Wanga Gambushe, and Prof Adam Haupt as they revealed a dictionary compiled not just from written texts but also from verbal transcriptions dating back centuries. “This is a turning point for scholarship and for education. It is a political turning point, too. This is something good, and we need this sort of good news,” Prof Haupt explained in his introduction.

Dictionaries are important tools to empower people. “For people, if their language is not recognised, there is something missing inside of you,” Dr Gambushe explained, “There is empowerment in seeing yourself in the language you speak being recognised.”

Prof Williams and Dr Rodrigues walked the audience through the process, the impact, and – most importantly – taught them how to spell in Kaaps. A young student who was attending exclaimed with joy upon finding, for the first time, the correct spelling of a word she had been trying to use in her writing.

The panel promised that “something big is coming in the future”, and if the academic, cultural, political, and human significance of the Kaaps Woriboek is anything to go by – hold your Bompie – we are seeing history in the making!

16/05/2026

How will SEO affect your future career?

In this seminar, presented by Simon Wilkes, MD of SIP Media, Simon will explain how people who go into the field of Journalism and Content Creation need to understand how SEO is used and how it is going to affect their career.

In addition to helping us navigate SEO, he will explain internship placement opportunities at his company, SIP Media, for current UCT students and graduates, and present his company's online platform for students to showcase their work.

📅 Thursday, 21 May
🕐 13h00 to 14h00
📍 AC Jordan, 4A

12/05/2026

What a night at the Shotties!

held their annual Shotties Film Festival at on Friday night, and it was an amazing success! Packed cinema, amazing films, and astoundig people - what more could you ask for?

Special guest judges Dr Julia Cain and Masters of Documentsry Arts candidates, Maganthrie Pillay and Mandla Zilwa had some tough choices to make - the quality was next level!

Huge congrats to all who organised and attended in making this a night to remember!

11/05/2026

Kaaps Woriboek ready for launch!

Join UCT’s Centre for Film & Media Studies (CFMS) and the School Education (SoE) for the launch of the Kaaps Woriboek on Friday, 15 May, at 15h00 in the newly renovated staff room in CFMS (AC Jordan’s second floor).

The Kaaps Woriboek is a project of the Society for the Advancement of Kaaps (https://sakaaps.co.za/) and the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR, UWC) in collaboration with Heal the Hood Project, Prof H. Samy Alim (UCLA), Dr Theo(dore) Rodrigues (UNISA) and Prof Adam Haupt (CFMS, UCT).

📆 Friday, 15 May
🕑 15h00
📍CFMS Staff Room, AC Jordan, Upper Campus


Our panellists will discuss the new dictionary’s launch not long after UCT’s decision to make Kaaps a language of development. These developments take place in a climate where educators have begun to acknowledge the value of multilingual education, not least because many scholars are committed to decolonial approaches to teaching and learning.

Can't make it in person? Scanthe QR code to join the live stream, courtesy of Prof Tanja Bosch’s Digital Media Sociology Lab


RSVP: [email protected]

Biographies:

Quentin Williams is Professor of Linguistics in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS), and Director of the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR) (currently on sabbatical in 2026). He is the founder and chairperson of the Societie virrie Advancement van Kaaps (SAK).



Theo(dore) Rodrigues is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Linguistics in the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature at UNISA. He holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the UWC. His research interests include Kaaps, translanguaging, reading comprehension, multilingual education and forensic linguistics. He is the editor-in-chief of Aweh – A Journal for minoritized language and the deputy chairperson of the Societie virrie Advancement van Kaaps (SAK).



Wanga Gambushe is a Senior Lecturer and Head of African Languages at the University of Cape Town. His research focuses on multilingualism in higher education, African language lexicography, terminology development, and language policy. He has worked on isiXhosa-English glossaries in the biological sciences and publishes on language and knowledge production in African contexts. He serves on the isiXhosa National Lexicography Unit Board.



Adam Haupt… But you know me, mos…