South Africa's Breakout Film To Premier Africa's Documentary Festival

The lineup of the most talked about non-fiction films from the past year have been announced for the 21st Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, with South Africa's breakout documentary film* STROOP - journey into the rhino horn war among the prestigious contenders selected. Fresh from the world's leading festivals, Encounters will be screening 2019's most acclaimed documentaries and the multi award-winning wildlife crime film will be among them.

"All the films speak cinematically about highly charged issues for South African audiences," says festival director Mandisa Zitha, "and we have the privilege of seeing this year's top-rated documentaries, each of them breaking new ground in non-fiction filmmaking."

STROOP director Susan Scott is ecstatic about the official selection saying: “I have been going to Encounters for as long as I can remember and I have watched absolutely phenomenal films that the selection team scoured the planet for and brought back to South Africa.

"This is really the way to see these powerful films - on the big screen and in the darkness of a theatre. Those films have had a huge impact on me and have stayed with me for many years. So to have STROOP selected for Encounters is just an incredible honour, and I’m thrilled the film gets another round of theatrical screenings for the South African public.”

Adds producer and presenter Bonné de Bod: "We’ve been to so many film festivals in the US and Europe, where the film has had an overwhelming reception, so to bring it back home for our continent’s most prestigious documentary festival is just wonderful. Not only for the film, but also so important for our rhino crisis which is causing the world to sit up and take notice at last.”

Encounters is STROOP's first African film festival after its whirlwind international run where it was officially selected for 26 film festivals, winning 17 awards around the globe. Encounters will be held from June 6 to 16, with the festival organisers allocating STROOP five screenings, three at Cape Town's Labia Theatre, one at Ster-Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank, Johannesburg and a free community screening at the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education.

Venues and dates:

• Saturday, June 8 at 16:00 at the Tshisimani Centre, Cape Town (free)
• Sunday, June 9 at 17:00 at Cinema Nouveau, Rosebank, Johannesburg (with filmmaker Q&A)
• Sunday, June 9 at 17:30 at the Labia Theatre, Cape Town
• Wednesday, June 12 at 20:15 at the Labia Theatre, Cape Town (with filmmaker Q&A)
• Saturday, June 15 at 17:30 at the Labia Theatre, Cape Town

The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival (Encounters) is the premier documentary festival in Africa and one of the oldest film festivals on the continent.**

Encounters takes place annually in Cape Town and Johannesburg during the month of June. In 2012, the festival attracted 11,000 audience members and close to a quarter of a million attendees have attended during its lifespan. Question and answer sessions with the filmmakers, which are open to public, usually take place after the screenings.

STROOP was an independent undertaking by Scott and de Bod who self-funded and crowdfunded through the public, and later received post-production grants to help them finish the film. Since its world premiere at the San Francisco Green Film Festival in September last year, the film has been officially selected for 26 film festivals, winning 17 awards and has been picked up by the London-based Journeyman Pictures for international distribution. The filmmakers are in talks with local broadcasters and hope to have the film on South African television soon.

NOTES FOR EDITORS
STROOP
Winning 17 awards and officially selected for 26 film festivals, this acclaimed film takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride between Africa and Asia. These first time filmmakers embed themselves on the front-lines of the rhino poaching crisis where they are given exclusive access to the war unfolding. Carving out six months for the project, the two women quickly find themselves immersed in a world far larger and more dangerous than they had imagined, only emerging from their odyssey four years later.

BONNE DE BOD - PRODUCER/PRESENTER
Bonné de Bod is well known as an award-winning wildlife television presenter, having been on the popular wildlife and environment programme 50|50 for seven seasons, and also as a special correspondent for SABC's Newsroom. In addition, her series Rhino Blog is on DStv's People's Weather where it is currently ranked the most popular show on that channel. Winner of an ATKV Mediaveertjie, de Bod has also been awarded the prestigious Kudu Award for Best Journalist in recognition of her passionate, balanced reporting on wildlife conservation issues, as well as keeping the public updated and informed about environmental issues in South Africa. Her in-depth knowledge on the rhino poaching crisis from four years filming on the ground and doing undercover work in Asia has led to de Bod facilitating discussions on illegal wildlife trafficking for the UN Environmental Programme as well as talks on radio, at film festivals and wildlife symposiums.

SUSAN SCOTT - DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Susan Scott is a Johannesburg based filmmaker producing stories on wildlife issues for various broadcasters around the world. Scott studied in the US, graduating from Baylor University with a degree in telecommunications. She won an editing apprenticeship in Washington DC with Tony Black A.C.E. where she went on to edit with him for several years, cutting for some of the best wildlife filmmakers on the planet, before heading back to South Africa. Awarded the prestigious acronym from the editors guild of South Africa, Scott has gone on to win several awards for her work, among them three SAFTAs and a Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival award as well as winning SAB Environmentalist of the Year for her writing and photography. STROOP - journey into the rhino horn war marks her first documentary feature film.

FOR AFRICA'S PREMIERE DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL