Reel to Reality asks what makes "An African City" in Johannesburg and Cape Town
The sixth edition of the African and diaspora film festival opens with Jazz Infernal, adds a screenwriting studio and revisits the acclaimed Isithunzi, starring Thuso Mbedu.
Johannesburg — The Reel to Reality Film Festival, a showcase for African and diaspora cinema, is back for its sixth year under the theme "An African City", which, the Mail & Guardian writes, invites discussion of what it means to be African and who belongs.
Screenings ran on 17 and 18 October at Artistry in Sandton, Johannesburg, and continue on 25 October at the Homecoming Centre in Cape Town.
On the programme
- Opening film: Jazz Infernal by Will Niava, about an Ivorian trumpeter who arrives in Canada carrying his late father's legacy.
- Closing film: Echoes Beneath the Hill by Aime Octave Ishimwe, about a ten-year-old girl in Rwanda as the country nears the 1994 genocide.
- Work by directors from Senegal, DR Congo, South Africa, Rwanda and Somalia, among others, in sessions such as "Who Belongs Here?" and "Echoes of the Earth".
- A retrospective of Isithunzi, which premiered a decade ago, won South African Film and Television Awards and stars two-time Emmy nominee Thuso Mbedu, with a panel led by the actress and filmmaker Palesa Buyeye.
- A new Script Studio, a workshop for emerging screenwriters with The Emotional Club's Screenwriting Club, which the founder hopes to grow into a lab with mentoring and peer review.
The founder and curator, Mbali Mashaba, started the festival around the Covid years, she said, because short films rarely reach cinema screens and she wanted to meet audiences in person. The festival is supported by the National Film and Video Foundation, and Mashaba hopes for more collaborations across borders.
Source: Mail & Guardian, reporting by Riley Hlatshwayo, 16 October 2026.
