Portrait of place – Fusion Foods

Production by Catherine White

Meet the TV production class – 2019

Students completing the B. Journalism at the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University introduce themselves and their vision.

iNkciyo

Trailer at iNkciyo
After leaving her Pondoland village 11 years ago, Zimkhita Kweza revisits her past and questions a cultural practice that has shaped her identity. She is now a feminist with new ideologies and questions about the isiXhosa practice of virginity testing. On a journey seeking for answers she meets different people and leaders in the community who face her provocative questions.

Production by Zimkhita Kweza & Nelisa Kom

I am Thandiwe

Trailer at I am Thandiwe
Our roots tell us who we are meant to be, our routes in life show us where we have been and who we are. In this personal self-reflective documentary Thandiwe Wiltshire shares her life with us. Not only as a black child raised by white parents, but as a young woman who makes us introspect on ‘what is Black’, and Blackness in relation to her family dynamics. Adopted at the age of three months, all she has known is the life created for her by the Wiltshire family; but with an identity entirely her own and one which she fought hard to create.
Production by Beugené Green and Yolanda Mdzeke

dear friend

Trailer at dear friend
Writing a letter is a unique kind of intimacy. It takes care, time and thought. ‘dear friend’ is a film that draws from the contemplative patience of letter writing to share the story, of many women, rarely told. The letter greets the viewer with an abrupt and fierce jerk into the memories of the two survivors of intimate partner violence. You are invited into the intimate psychology of two women and into the fragmented, visceral, dark and shadowed reality of intimate partner violence in same-sex relationships. It is a glimpse into what the film unravels through light and shadow: the survivor’s journey of denial, acknowledgement and determination to leave. Through their voices we can hear and imagine and also acknowledge, as members of our societies, how we have failed to see that their story is a true one. The film leaves no room for “women cannot be violent”, nor for ignoring the very real truth of the survivors. ‘dear friend’ demands you to admit to yourself all the things you may have chosen to be blind to and to see past the darkness and the shadowed veil of silence shrouding this issue. It casts light and commands: even if you choose not to see, you will hear these stories.

Production by Tumelo Thamaga and Sinalo Thuku