Filmmaker, writer and poet Milisuthando Bongela’s youth in South Africa was untouched by the horrors, violence, or even the presence of white occupiers in her land. At least that’s how it seemed.
The Transkei, an unrecognised Black independent region established by the apartheid regime, created the illusion for Black South Africans that separate could be equal. And paradoxically, for Bongela, life in the Transkei proved as idyllic as the propaganda claimed until it was over.
The fall of apartheid ushered in a new life, one that included, for the first time, whiteness.
Milisuthando is a profoundly intimate portrait of past, present and future South Africa, blending poetry, film, and photography into a striking cinematic essay. Bongela explores love, friendship, and belonging in a South Africa stratified by racism, proving that only if we understand its tentacles can we begin to extricate ourselves from its clutches.
Content warning: racist language
Milisuthando Bongela-Davis is from South Africa. She is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, cultural worker, and artist. Her career began in the fashion industry, but the last 16 years have seen her traverse the worlds of music, art, media and film — continually turning towards indigenous knowledge systems.
She was Arts Editor for the Mail & Guardian's Friday section and was host and co-producer of the podcast Umoya: On African Spirituality with Dr. Athambile Masola. Her first film, a personal essay documentary titled Milisuthando had its in-competition world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was selected for MoMA’s New Directors / New Films programme 2023, before opening the 2023 Encounters Documentary Film Festival. It was nominated and won awards for its groundbreaking form, subject matter and approach to personal filmmaking.
She is an inaugural fellow of the 2020 Adobe Women at Sundance Fellowship. She is currently working on her second film, an experimental silent film commissioned by Neo Muyanga and William Kentridge’s Centre for Less Good Idea in Johannesburg. She recently moved to New York from Johannesburg.
