In the 27 years of Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, the world has never been this desperate to be documented. Filmmakers take on tyrants like Putin, Al-Bashir, Musk, Bezos, and AI itself. They champion disruptors who fight femicide, defend indigenous land, or challenge corporate giants, and celebrate artists who push culture and move the world to a better place.

The festival showcases documentaries from over 40 countries at cinemas in Cape Town and Johannesburg from 19 to 29 June.

“In 2024, Encounters presented three of the five documentaries later nominated for Oscars, including the winner No Other Land,” explains Mandisa Zitha, Director of Encounters. “This year we’re raising the bar even higher with an excellent selection of films that speak to the role of the documentary and impact filmmaker in 2025.”

Encounters 2025 opens with How to Build a Library directed by Maia Lekow and Christopher King which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Two Kenyan women transform a dilapidated library in downtown Nairobi into a vibrant centre for residents and creatives.

Other highlights amongst the top-drawer selection of South African, African and International documentaries include:

Shifting Baselines (Canada) directed by Julien Elie does this hauntingly well, using a real-life parable playing out in a small Texan town, as swamps are drained, beaches closed, and residents bought out to make room for the launch facilities of Spacex, weighing Musk’s ambitions against the irreversible consequences of his frenetic space race.

The Thinking Game directed by Greg Kohs (USA) is a fascinating look at the development of AI. Visionary scientist Demis Hassabis, a TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2025 and his team strive to crack artificial general intelligence.

In Eloise King’s The Shadow Scholars (UK) Professor Patricia Kingori of Oxford University travels to Kenya to find out more about the academic writing industry where she finds thousands of educated and technically adept but underemployed Kenyan graduates who are part of “Essay Mills” writing essays, exam papers, PHD thesis and other academic assignments for students at leading universities in the global north.

Fitting in directed by Fabienne Steiner (South Africa) focuses on the diverse experience of young South Africans as they begin their studies at the select former Afrikaans university, Stellenbosch.

Mothers of Chibok directed by Joel “Kachi” Benson (Nigeria) focuses on mothers ten years after Boko Haram terrorists abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, who fight to educate their remaining children. They toil and suffer, driven by a deep belief that education is the path to a better life.

In Mr Nobody Against Putin directed by David Borenstein and Pasha Talankin (Denmark, Czech Rep.) follows an event organiser and videographer in a small-town school in Russia who secretly documents the disturbing transformation of the school into a war recruitment centre during the invasion of Ukraine.

Albie: A Strange Alchemy directed by Sara de Gouveia (South Africa) celebrates the 90th birthday of the renowned Judge Albie Sachs charting his journey from civil rights lawyer and struggle hero to Justice of the Constitutional Court.

Director Nhlanhla Mthethwa’s (South Africa) Sam Nzima: A Journey Through His Lens examines the work of Sam Nzima, the photographer who took the iconic picture of Mbuyisa Makhabo carrying the body of the dying 12-year-old activist Hector Pietersen on June 16th, 1976.

Finally a real scoop for the festival is the inclusion of legendary auteur and three-time Academy Award nominated director Wim Wenders’s Anselm (Germany), an immersive documentary about Anselm Kiefer, one of the world’s greatest contemporary artists. Anselm is touted as a filmic gift for art lovers.

Encounters takes place at the Labia Theatre and V&A Waterfront Ster-Kinekor in Cape Town and The Bioscope and The Zone @ Rosebank in Johannesburg from 19 to 29 June 2025. For the full schedule of films, and to buy tickets, visit https://encounters.co.za.