Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Now celebrating its 28th year as a festival, Encounters returns to The Bioscope once again with screenings at The Bioscope from 5 – 14 June. Tickets are R90. For more information on the festival as a whole, please visit: encounters.co.za
2026 SCREENINGS
FRI 5 June 6pm: A Little Blackman From The Congo (with Q&A) BOOK NOW. South African filmmaker Tshililo waha Muzila walks the Camino de Santiago in an orange life jacket, exposing Europe’s migrant crisis while reflecting on colonial legacies shaping Black identity across continents.
FRI 5 June 8:15pm: Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror BOOK NOW. The unlikely story of the much-loved Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still screening in theatres 50 years after its first opening, making it the longest-running theatrical release in film history.
SAT 6 June 4pm: A War On Women BOOK NOW. Four generations of Iranian women resist the Islamic Republic, transforming decades of oppression, protest, and personal sacrifice into a powerful feminist movement demanding freedom, dignity, and lasting change.
SAT 6 June 6:30pm: Amadou & Mariam – The Blind Couple From Mali BOOK NOW. This intimate film chronicles the career of Malian musical couple Amadou and Mariam, whose joyfully infectious music has made them one of Africa’s most successful musical exports.
SUN 7 June 2pm: Amilcar BOOK NOW. A beautifully made film about poet, agricultural engineer, and revolutionary Amílcar Cabral that takes an impressionist approach to its protagonist’s life and work.
SUN 7 June 4pm: SHORTS BLOCK – Where Grief Settles BOOK NOW. Films Included: Mama Micra (24min), Open Field, an (38min).
TUE 9 June 5:30pm: Elephants & Squirrels BOOK NOW. This engrossing film follows a Sri Lankan artist as she retraces the colonial-era journey of two men who collected numerous artefacts, including human remains, from the region and took them back to Europe for ‘scientific research’.
TUE 9 June 8pm: SHORTS BLOCK – Salt Of The Earth BOOK NOW. Films Included: Taste of the Land (16min) (with Q&A), VET vannie Land (30min), Place Called Paradise, A (15min), VOICES FROM THE ABYSS (23min).
WED 10 June 6pm: Kikuyu Land BOOK NOW. On the tea plantations of Kenya, it’s as if colonialism never ended. Kikuyu Land documents the attempt of one man to claim restitution for land that was taken from his family during the colonial period.
WED 10 June 8pm: My Father’s Son BOOK NOW. Two estranged South African brothers meet online for the first time and, through Zoom calls, uncover a shared past shaped by separation, trauma, and unexpected brotherhood.
THUR 11 June 5pm: Fantastique BOOK NOW. A 14-year-old girl in Conakry pursues her dream of becoming a gymnast in the Amoukanama Circus, navigating family duty and ambition, as her world tightens around her future.
THURS 11 June 7pm: Life after Siham BOOK NOW. (Presented in collaboration with The Joburg French Cine Club) Filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeeh uses cinema to reconstruct his mother’s life after her death, blending memory, footage, and fiction to explore grief, identity, and the enduring presence of images.
FRI 12 June 6pm: SHORTS BLOCK – Thank You For Being BOOK NOW. Films Included: Inyembezi Zendoda (12min), Just Because I’m a Street Kid (14min) (with Q&A), Dear Sikhonkwane (21min) (with Q&A), One Last Order (22min).
FRI 12 June 8pm: All About The Money BOOK NOW. Like a surreal blend of Succession and Anarchy 101, All About the Money is a compelling portrait of a man for whom vast wealth had provided a buffer against virtually all consequences.
SAT 13 June 2pm: SHORTS BLOCK – The Body Remembers BOOK NOW. Films Included: Bones (49min tbc), Eyes to see (14min), WAT WAS HIE? (31min).
SAT 13 June 4pm: My Father and Qaddafi BOOK NOW. A daughter reconstructs the disappearance of her father, Libyan diplomat Mansur Kikhia, uncovering a decades-long silence shaped by Qaddafi’s reign of political violence, in her search for truth and justice.
SAT 13 June 6pm: Nuisance Bear BOOK NOW. This carefully considered film follows an adolescent polar bear who has been separated from his mother too early and becomes a nuisance to the local human population.
SUN 14 June 11am: SHORTS BLOCK – When Things Fall Apart BOOK NOW. Films Included: Broken Windows (4min) (with Q&A), Oops, I died (15min) The Spectacle (20min), Sueña Ahora (20min).
SUN 14 June 2pm: Tristan Forever BOOK NOW. For more than 30 years, Loran, a doctor from Paris has been visiting the remote island of Tristan da Cunha. Now, at the age of 50, he decides that he wants to make the island his home.
SUN 14 June 4pm: Notes From The Underground BOOK NOW. Featuring the cream of Cape Town’s hip hop talent, including Ready D, Isaac Mutant, and Mutant’s daughter, Lyrix, this powerful documentary tells the history of Cape hip hop and its role in post-apartheid South Africa.
