The Team
REHAD DESAI
PRODUCER & DIRECTOR
Rehad Desai is a Cape Town-born filmmaker who returned from exile in 1990 and now lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. Rehad has a Masters in History and began making documentaries in 1998. He formed Uhuru Productions in 2003 and has been the driving force behind the company ever since. Rehad Desai is also the Chairperson of the Human Rights Media Trust, formed in 2004.
Over the course of his time as a filmmaker, he has conceived and produced over 20 documentary films, many of which he has directed or co-directed. Six of these films have been feature length documentaries, produced with significant international participation and have received critical acclaim and wide festival take-up.
Rehad Desai is the founder director of the Tri Continental Human Rights Film Festival.
MARK J. KAPLAN
CO DIRECTOR
Director Mark J Kaplan is one of South Africa’s foremost documentary filmmakers. He was held in solitary confinement and deported from Apartheid South Africa. His films have focused on social and political issues, human rights and historical memory. He has won several international awards including an Emmy (The Lion’s Trail), Best International Documentary at One World (Where Truth Lies) and Award of Excellence, The Society for Visual Anthropology, USA, (Between Joyce and Remembrance). The Village Under The Forest received the Audience Award for Best South African documentary at The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, 2013.
ZIVIA DESAI
PRODUCER
Zivia Desai is a Cape Town based producer who grew up in exile in England, where she worked in publishing before returning to South Africa in 1990 and joining the film industry. In 2003 Zivia Desai was central to the establishment of South Africa’s only documentary film festival to showcase cinema from the global south and the setting up of Uhuru Productions with her sibling, filmmaker Rehad Desai.
Zivia’s dedication to the genre of documentary includes producer credits on several highly acclaimed and award winning films, among them, Born into Struggle, Death of a Bushman, Taking Back the Waves and Bushman’s Secrets. Since 2014, Zivia has headed the marketing and distribution department of Uhuru Productions. In 2016 she was one of the producers of The Giant is Falling, the second in a trilogy of films tackling enduring inequality in South Africa.
ANITA KHANNA
PRODUCER & WRITER
Anita Khanna has scripted and produced the company’s multi award winning documentaries (Born into Struggle, Bushman’s Secrets, Miners Shot Down). Anita Khanna produced and co-directed the Alexandra My Alexandra history documentary series and wrote and produced an award winning feminist drama series, Mating Game (SABC).
Anita has been a jury member at the Durban International Film Festival and at One World Human Rights Film Festival, Prague. She was the Outreach Director of the first satellite version of the Good Pitch that took place in Johannesburg in 2011. Anita is also the current director (since 2012) of the Tri Continental Documentary Film Festival and watches hundreds of documentaries each year to put together a programme that speaks to the most urgent issues facing southern African audiences with a view to developing new audiences for documentary.
Anita Khanna is also an award winning Impact Producer (BritDoc Impact Award 2015).
MEGAN GILL
EDITOR
Megan Gill is a South African-based editor and in a career spanning 20 years, Mega has worked on a wealth of television and film productions including documentaries Miners Shot Down which garnered 28 awards, as well as an Emmy for Best International Documentary and the Golden Horn at the SAFTA’s for editing The Giant is Falling. Most recently Megan Gill edited the critically-acclaimed film Eye in the Sky starring Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman.
Megan also edited Tsotsi, Rendition, Otelo Burning, X-Men Origins and Wolverine amongst many more.
Editors
Megan Gill
Geert Veuskens
Nikki Comninos
Directors of Photography
Nic Hofmeyr
Duncan Tilley
Soundtrack Composer
Jannous Aukema
Sound Recordist
Sibusiso Zulu
President Kapa
Scriptwriters
Anita Khanna
Rehad Desai
Co-Producers
Heino Deckert
Gudny Hummelvoll
Maarten Schmidt
Grant Keir
Executive Producers
Michael Auret
Mike Lerner
Geert Veuskens