Wamkelekile, Welkom
CFMS honours project wins a SAFTA
22 March 2019 | Story Supplied. Photo Supplied. Read time 2 min.
The Water Dancers, a documentary created as part of an honours project in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Centre for Film and Media Studies (CFMS), has been named Best Student Film at the 2019 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA).
The documentary, conceptualised by cinematographer Tessa Barlin, highlights the importance of conservation while exploring sustainable solutions to the continuing water security crisis. It also focuses on dragonflies as a key species pointing to the health of an environment.
The team behind The Water Dancers comprises Barlin, director Robyn Palmer, co-editors Erin Macpherson and Michael Dawson, and producer Daniel Ndevu.
“We have literally gone from sleeping on tripod bags in the editing studio to winning a SAFTA,” a delighted Palmer said after accepting the award earlier this month.
Two of the three final nominations in this category were CFMS films – the other was Scarlet’s Tale – both being completed at the end of 2017.
The Water Dancers was screened at the Durban Film Festival, the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival and the Jozi Film Festival last year. It premiered internationally at the 2018 International Green Film Festival in Poland, before going on to be screened in Rwanda, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Namibia as part of the Goethe Institute’s 2018 Science Film Festival.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information.
Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC)
The Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC) Steering Committee was established as a result of a period of unprecedented tension at the University of Cape Town (UCT) at the end of 2016. The creation of the multi-stakeholder steering committee that will oversee the proposed IRTC was one of the resolutions made in the 6 November 2016 agreement, which effectively brought the waves of continuing protest at the university to a halt.
The agreement, which was signed between the UCT executive and protesting student groups, paved the way for the establishment of the IRTC, whose aims are to
- consider all Shackville-related protests of 2016, including disciplinary procedures and interdicts
- invite submissions from all constituencies on clemencies that were granted and decide whether clemency should be turned into amnesty
- make recommendations on how the university should deal with pending cases and other such matters in the future
- make recommendations on institutional culture, transformation, decolonisation, discrimination, identity, disability and any other matters that the university community has raised over the past 18 months, or may wish to raise in the future.
The IRTC’s objective is to map an inclusive and fair course for the university as it tackles the legacy of the so-called Shackville protests and to focus on the issues that have caused division on our university campus.
Read IRTC documents:
- Read the 6 November agreement
- Read the declaration by students seeking clemency
- Read the FAQ about the agreement
- Read the criteria and process for nominating commissioners - List of Steering Committee Members
- Names of the IRTC Steering Committee members
- Email addresses of the IRTC Steering Committee members
- See the announcement of the IRTC Commissioners
- IRTC Final Report
A summary and analysis of the Terms of Reference are given in Chapter 2, starting on page 7
Feedback and responses to the IRTC report:
IRTC Final Report
Statements by the IRTC
Latest news
Reports from the Steering Committee Chair
2018 IRTC Steering Committee meetings
2017 IRTC Steering Committee meetings