Cascade Festival of African Films 2020: "Sela" by Rafieka Davis (South Africa)

Cascade Festival of African Films 2020

Sela by Rafieka Davis

(South Africa) 2019, 25 min
Featuring Women Filmmakers Week

Synopsis

Three South African teenagers, aged between 13 and 15, wrote the screenplay for Sela (isiXhosa for “drink”) based on their own lives. The film is about a young boy, Kamva, who takes on the burdens of his family due to his mother’s alcoholism and its effect on her children.

Bio

Rafieka Davis is a female film director where women face extreme challenges in fighting for their artistic voice. Her career started with a stint in theatre production and she co-wrote her schools first original musical called Voices in 2006. Her love for film birthed when she entered the Nab Ubomi Interschool film competition, an initiative for high school kids interested in filmmaking around the Eastern Cape. This formed the catalyst for her love for telling stories through film. Her filmmaking career started with an enrolment in the award winning film school Big Fish in Cape Town where she graduated from. Her career spans across many roles within filmmaking from camera work, scripting and to her primary love that of film directing. Her achievements include an award for the film "Chain Reaction" for Best Scene where she was an assistant director. She was the only student to create original score for the film which lead to her being nominated for outstanding student contribution. The film received 9 out of 12 awards including "People's Choice Award" (Source: film freeway.com)