The deadline for applications for the Film Impact Screening Facilitator short course has been extended to 19 April 2022.

The accredited short course is convened collaboratively with the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Film and Media Studies (CFMS) and Africa’s own solar-powered cinema network Sunshine Cinema.

Applications are invited for this 6-month, part-time, 100% online course. The course is packed with layers of practical content on a secure learning platform. Learning is self-paced, with films and synchronous online classes where participants interact with each other, lecturers, and guest speakers.

The course is billed as an excellent building block towards working as a creative, social impact facilitator, filmmaker, NGO leader, marketing or communications worker.

This online short course explores the theory and practice of engaging with audiences on social change issues using documentary and fiction film screenings, discussions and other interventions. Pitched at working impact producers, communicators, creatives and purpose-driven Gen Z’s still new to the job market, the course provides a toolkit for sparking change.

Sunshine Cinema co-founder and course lecturer Sydelle Willow-Smith says: “African impact producers manage multiple challenges both in terms of storytelling across languages and cultures but also in reaching audiences who don’t have access. The course content applies globally but it’s our African resilience and creativity that has informed so much of our strategy and allowed us to distil what works.”

Maasdorp explains that although they are not teaching filmmaking in the course, production and distribution go hand in hand.

“The key is collaboration,” says Maasdorp. “Few filmmakers have the energy or resources left after producing a film to take it around the country themselves so it can reach critical audiences. Many people affected by the human rights, social justice and environmental issues exposed in impact films live in rural and poorer communities. It takes a special group of people – from funders to activists, from NGOs to academia and from filmmakers to screening facilitators – to pull together to make sure the right film reaches the right audience in the right way to make real and meaningful social change happen.”

Course convenor and lecturers

The course is convened by Dr Liani Maasdorp of the CFMS. Guest lecturers include:  

• Author, poet, playwright and storyteller Gcina Mhlophe,
• Renowned impact producer & scriptwriter Anita Khanna 
• Award-winning filmmaker and impact producer Miki Redelinghuys
• Award-winning filmmaker and educator Dylan Valley
• Award-winning visual anthropologist Susan Levine
• Sunshine Cinema co-founders Sydelle Willow Smith & Rowan Pybus 
• Docubox  founder and award-winning Kenyan filmmaker, Judy Kibinge
• Outspoken activist and academic, Constance Mogale

A UCT accredited short course, it's suitable for beginners and students with some experience in media or communications. Applications are now open and the deadline to sign up for this is 19 April 2022.

The course runs from June to December 2022. For more Info and fee structure, click here, and to apply, click here.

Please send email enquiries to Sunshine Cinema or course facilitators at UCT.