Milisuthando Bongela

A writer and filmmaker who worked for several years in fashion design, Milisuthando Bongela has been working in the domain of cinema, art, and music for the last fifteen years. She made her debut as a director with the documentary feature film Milisuthando, which was presented in the official section of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and selected to open the New Directors/New Films festival at MoMA the same year. Widely acclaimed by international critics, the film takes the form of an essay constructed with archival images by means of which Milisuthando Bongela revisits the recent history of South Africa. Prior to making this film, she was Arts editor of the Friday edition of the Mail & Guardian and director and coproducer, together with Athambile Masola, of the podcast Umoya: On African Spirituality. She is also associated with institutions like Center For The Less Good Idea, which was founded by William Kentridge, with whom she is working on her next film.