The 20th edition of Encounters, the country's foremost and most beloved documentary festival, kicks off in Cape Town and Joburg on May 31. As ever there are plenty of slices of real life that explore where we are, where we've come from and where we're going, not only in South Africa but across the globe.
This year's festival, which also places a much-needed and well-timed spotlight on the role of women through films that deal with the legacy of the 1956 Women's March, the struggles and gains of pop superstar M.I.A., the defiant expression of Dame Vivienne Westwood and the determination of former public protector Thuli Madonsela.
There's also the long awaited tri-continental exploration of the inequalities of gentrification by local filmmaker Kurt Orderson (Not in my Neighbourhood), the much anticipated biography of the late prophetic SA rocker James Phillips (The Fun's Not Over), the history of everyone's favourite chicken adverts and their relationship to our post-apartheid birthing pains (Pluck), and a return to screen after 15 years for Nathaniel Kahn, whose new film The Price of Everything shines a spotlight on the absurdities of the high prices of the modern art scene.
Here's an appetite-whetting selection of a few of the highlights of this year's festival:
WHISPERING TRUTH TO POWER
Directed by Shameela Seedat
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at this year's HotDocs festival in Toronto, Seedat's film follows Thuli Madonsela, the country's most loved and famous public protector, during the last year of her term.
In among the pressures of the Nkandla report and her attempts to complete the state capture report before her departure we're provided with an intimate behind-the-scenes glimpse into the personal and professional life of a woman whose commitment to her office earned her the respect and grudging admiration of both the public and those who came under her microscope...