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Encounters with Palestine and the environment

These subjects take centre stage at a festival showcasing nearly 50 documentaries

Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam

M.I.A. brings the noize to South Africa

The musician will perform alongside some of the country’s best artists

The foundation’s policy does allow for the organisers of the festival to appeal the foundation’s decision and the Encounters team has said it intends to do so.

NFVF says ‘abrupt’ Encounters fest funding withdrawal was due process

Organisers were shocked when they were told they had lost their biggest funder, but the NFVF says the delivery of its decision was procedure

‘I cannot say that I left Mama Winnie’s home the same woman

Winnie’s grace gave me strength

‘Mama Winnie’s mere presence was enough to tell me that I am more than fine, and that I am capable,’ says the writer

Rising up in 1976: An image used in Sifiso Khanyile’s documentary ‘Uprize!’

Powerfully unpacking of conditions that led to June 16

‘The story is narrated by people who were there and who relay the climate that led to the day we now know as June 16.’

If one accepts Israel’s right to statehood
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Encounters film festival: What to watch

As the renowned film festival opens across parts of the country, Darryl Accone and Katlego Mkhwanazi list their must-sees.

Recommended highlights from Encounters 2014

Documentaries have long since ceased to be feature film’s irritating cousin but has grown up, as this year’s Encounters Festival programme proves.

PODCAST: We speak to M&G reporter Faranaaz Parker about government’s apparent inability to track the rising number of circumcision deaths in SA.

Is surgical circumcision the key to halting initiation deaths?

Mayenzeke Baza’s documentary explores issues of best practice in circumcision as well as wider issues of secrecy and the exclusion of women.

In recent years, the Nakba has become popularised for filmmakers worldwide and a source of furious contention both within the Jewish state and beyond. (Supplied)
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No shortcut through the graveyard forest

A striking new documentary delves into the lives of Israelis and Palestinians living together but apart.

Encounters: Five of the best at the fest

We choose some of the must-see documentaries showing as part of the Encounters festival.

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Jo’burg cast in new light, but old shadows abide

"Jeppe on a Friday" is a compelling documentary filmed in one day by eight female filmmakers.

FW de Klerk.

The historical case for an independent judiciary

Viewed from the context of SA in 2012, Common Purpose reminds us of apartheid brutality, FW de Klerk’s recent protestations notwithstanding.

Mean streets: Jon Blair’s ‘Dancing with the Devil’ exposes the life of a pastor in the druglands of Rio

SA-born film maker Jon Blair dances with his dark side

One feels an enormous sense of gratuitous satisfaction while watching Jon Blair’s Rio drug documentary "Dancing with the Devil".

Mugabe in black and white

Mugabe in black and white

The foundation for the Zimbabwean president’s emergence as tyrant was laid before he was elected, according to a new documentary.

An imam who was and wasn’t

An imam who was and wasn’t

It becomes apparent very early in <em>The Imam and I </em> that this film is not just about a murdered apartheid-era imam.

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Festival fare

The 13th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival features 37 films from 14 countries and five continents this year.