Good evening ladies and gentlemen, festival director Mandisa Ralane, National Film and Video Foundation CEO, Makhosazana Khanyile and director of our opening night film, Buddha in Africa, Nicole Schafer.

I wish you a very warm welcome to the 21st Encounters South African International Documentary Festival that is taking place this year from today until Sunday 16 June.

Thank you for making your way out in the cold to join us for the South African premiere of Buddha in Africa. A special welcome to our international guests from Germany, France and the USA.

The importance of the Encounters festival in South Africa is to promote local film making, and to provide opportunities to young film graduates to learn about the business side of film making; for them to have the opportunity to interface with the institutions that are responsible for funding filmmakers as well as to get more local viewers exposed to the social impact of documentaries – raising awareness of social issues.

A lot has been written on why stories matter. They are powerful tools for change and action. Stories shape us and the world around us, they give us meaning and purpose. They are a big part of what makes us human.

Filmmakers quite rightly believe that cinema is a powerful way to deliver stories, and within this art form, I believe that documentary making (and especially documentaries from Africa and about Africa) is needed now more than ever.

We find ourselves in a world where stories are pushed in sharp bursts for short attention spans. These stories are not always true, they are not always representative and they don’t always bravely hold up a mirror for society to consider our triumphs and shortfalls. Documentaries do this.

They take difficult subject matter, often stories that may be censored in the traditional media or not funded in mainstream film, and share it with the world. The best documentary makers take risks to surface hidden ideas, provoke debate, offer platforms for those who do not and challenge how we see ourselves in the world.

The City understands the value in sharing these stories through the film industry and its impact on our local economy, and also supports the film industry as a focal part of cinema worldwide. Film has become a part of our daily lives and for many people around the world, it serves as a platform to engage social issues and to step into different perspectives for a while. This is why the City of Cape Town supports the festival with a financial contribution, hoping to see the festival flourish even further.

I want to take a moment to share some statistics with you about the Encounters Festival. Between 1999 and 2018 the festival has reached an audience of nearly 200 000 people. It has had 2 368 screenings which 447 include South African titles and 539 international titles.

Encounters has seen 366 South African guests and 184 international guests.

These statistics not only speak to the growing popularity of the festival, but it also indicates the local and international interest in the Encounters Film Festival.

This year, the event will take place at various venues around Cape Town which include the Labia, Ster Kinekor Cinema Nouveau and Bertha House in Khayelitsha, just to name a few, and will comprise 40 to 50 feature-length and short documentaries, selected from 400 submissions worldwide.

The expected number of participants are estimated at 7 000 with more than 40 local and international filmmakers and guests to participate in Q&A sessions and panel discussions after selected screenings.              

Finally, I invite you to join me in viewing the Buddha in Africa this evening as we kick start this vibrant festival.

The complex, multi-layered stories of our diverse communities need to be told so that we may understand ourselves better and help shape the way we build our futures.

Cape Town’s multiple stories also need telling, the small and large, the painful and joyous the complicated and simple. We need this for healing and understanding each other, for bridging divides and for inspiration.

End