Twelve projects, selected from across Africa, will be pitched to Al Jazeera commissioning editor Farid Barsoum. While Barsoum primarily focuses on one-off documentaries, special series, and the Correspondent series, he will be representing all Al Jazeera strands at the event.

The following filmmakers will be pitching either via Skype or in person:

  • Ben Mahaka (Zimbabwe) – I Only Wear Levi’s is about a displaced community that returns to claim their ancestral land in the middle of two live minefields because it’s the only place where they can make a living;
  • Bill Afwani (Kenya) – Terro-rism is a slang term used to explain the act of young and old females forcefully being inherited over and over by other men at the basin of Lake Victoria in Luo Nyanza, Kenya;
  • Bryan Little and Filipa Domingues (South Africa) – Riel takes place in little towns and villages across the arid South Western Africa, places that for most would be ‘the middle of nowhere,’ where there exists a culture that runs as deep as the beginning of man. A small but deeply poignant revival is happening in the hearts of the historically voiceless people there; 
  • Chike Ibekwe (Nigeria) – Life in the IDP is about The Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the north of Nigeria, which have become a last hope to the many victims of the Boko Haram insurgency; 
  • Kaizer Matsumunyane (Lesotho) – Smiling Pirate is about Abduwal Abdukhad Muse, who was the first person to be charged in an American court with piracy in over 100 years. 
  • Kelly-Eve Koopman and Sarah Summers (South Africa) Oom Piet takes place in a brewing land with reclamation conflicts, !aru, a bushman from the Kalahari, is forced to compromise his own lifestyle when he lobbies the South African government to restitute six hectares of veld to his community and ensure the survival of his culture;
  • Lydia Matata (Kenya) – Better Sundays is set in a small religious community in Kasese, Uganda. The film focuses on the attempts by Robert Bwambale, the director of the Kasese Humanist School, and a group of teachers to transform the beliefs of children and adults through secular teachings;
  • Mia Cilliers and Jackie Ruth Murray (South Africa) – The Beach Boys looks at a group of Tanzanian stowaways known as the 'beach boys', who live underneath the concrete flyover of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela Boulevard; 
  • Pablo Pinedo Boveda (South Africa) – Reclaiming the City focuses on the decades of Apartheid urban 'development', having created physically segregated societies within city boundaries. Together with several other activists and supported by a civil rights association, Elisabeth Gqoboka (48) joins the struggle for affordable housing within the city centre;
  • Sofia de Fay (Cape Town) – Raw – My Nakedness is the story of theatre director, Thando Doni, who works with ex-criminals in a creative collaboration to reintegrate them into Cape Town society after their release from prison; 
  • Tapiwa Chipfupa (Zimbabwe) – Children of the Soil takes place in Zimbabwe, which is teetering on the brink of collapse; and
  • Yara Costa (Mozambique) – Between God and I gets into the mindsets of two young women to reveal what is behind the veil and between this new generation and their God. 

The pitching session is open to the public and industry filmmakers and observers are encouraged to attend. Refreshments to be served afterwards. The sixth Al Jazeera-Encounters Pitching Forum will take place on Sunday, 11 June from 09:30 to 13:00 at Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.

Somaliland: Kill All But The Crows is a recent example of a project pitched at Encounters that went on to screen on Al Jazeera English.

For more information, visit www.encounters.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.