Sara Chitambo-Hatira
Position: Chairperson
Sara Chitambo-Hatira is a filmmaker and communications strategist dedicated to telling impactful stories that address urgent social issues. Sara’s debut feature-length documentary, Black People Don’t Get Depressed, premiered at the Africa Film Festival in New York and has been selected as part of the syllabus at the University of Michigans Department of African Studies.
With a Master’s degree in Digital Documentary from Sussex University, she combines academic expertise with artistic vision to create compelling, socially conscious films.
Ameera Faber
Position: Deputy Chairperson
Ameera Faber is a creative solutions strategist, business psychologist, entrepreneur and award-winning storyteller with over 17 years of experience in media, coaching, and creative strategy.
She founded the content studio, I Love That in 2009, producing over 600 hours of commercially broadcast content in the science, technology and innovation space. Her work spans producing, writing, business coaching, and leading transmedia strategies.
Her studio facility, Universal Transmedia House, supports the post production of Uzalo. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Conscious Business Ethics and is the co-founder of The Superhero Project NPO.
Neo Kastarine Kgola
Position: docYouth
Kastarine Neo Kgola is a documentary filmmaker and editor, dedicated to amplifying the voices of youth through mobile storytelling. As a board member of the Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA), she represents the perspectives and aspirations of young filmmakers in the documentary space, ensuring that their insights are integral to the evolution of the medium.
Currently working for a nonprofit pan-African organization that harnesses the transformative power of documentaries to inspire social change. In her capacity as a media and communications practitioner, she trains young people from various African countries—including South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Zambia—equipping them with essential skills to tell their own stories using mobile technology.
To date, she has successfully trained over 80 young individuals, fostering a new generation of storytellers who can navigate and influence their communities through visual narratives.
Jane Thandi Lipman
Position: docFundraising
Jane Thandi Lipman is a multi-award-winning director, producer, writer, and journalist. She leads Current Affairs Films, a leading South African film and television company known for its international output and its strong commitment to Black empowerment, training, and staffing on a project-byproject basis.
Recognised for her powerful storytelling on social justice issues, Jane has produced and directed landmark films for international broadcasters including the BBC, CBC, Channel 4, ABC News, and MNET’s Carte Blanche. A dedicated mentor to emerging talent—especially young women of colour—Jane has played a significant role in the South African film and television industry since her return from Canada in 1997.
Pearl Munonde
Position: Treasurer
Pearl Munonde has a solid foundation in production, having built her career by rising through the ranks and gaining extensive knowledge at each level. She is an accomplished Producer and Line Producer who has produced hundreds of hours of award-winning content for different broadcasters including SABC, Mnet, Mzansi Magic and Etv. Pearl has worked extensively on reality shows, studio game shows, drama, magazine shows, factual documentaries, music shows, educational children’s shows, corporates and commercials.
She sits on various boards such as SWIFT, DFMI, SOS Coalition and was Chairperson at SASFED in 2023.
She is passionate about paying it forward through training and mentoring young female filmmakers and has been doing so for over 10 years and has produced many great production personnel in the industry. She owns her own production company called NwaChasiya Media; which opened its doors in 2016. Pearl has a Bachelors’ Degree in Business Administration..
Elelwani Netshifhire
Position: docLove
Elelwani Netshifhire is a passionate storyteller specializing in film as a writer, director and producer. She has worked on various leading international and local (South African) film productions. A long standing DFA member who was also the organisation’s DocSHARE Programme Manager.
Elelwani has just completed producing After School Series pilot project and is currently working as a creative producer on e.tv’s Isiphetho-Destiny. She is well equipped, with qualifications from the University Of Cape Town’s Film & Media Department, University Of South Africa, and University of Southern California’s School Of Cinematic Arts.
Amilcar Patel
Position: SASFED Rep
Amilcar Patel is cross-industry generalist and the founder of KAMVA Collective, a production house that creates work focusing on alternative African futures. Her latest feature film in development explores the consequences and possibilities of Emergent Tech and was awarded the Red Sea Development Fund, the DOK Leipzig Accelerator Award and was nominated for Best Documentary Project by the Saxon State Ministry for Science and Culture. Her films have premiered at Encounters, the BFI London Film Festival and Womex and has been exhibited at Dublin Museum of Modern Art and at Q21 Vienna.
Amílcar has produced a range of commercial shorts and her online documentaries and episodicals have garnered over 4+million views. She is an Africa No Filter Narrative Champion for her work in crafting narratives that speak to the full range of African experiences. She has produced large projects dealing with land, memory and dispossession for Arts & Culture at Google. Her co-produced, award-winning feature documentary Not in my Neighbourhood explored gentrification and spatial apartheid across three continents. She has regularly served as a juror for Rough Cut Labs Africa.
Tamsin Ranger
Position: docArchives
Tamsin Ranger joined Big World Cinema in 2011, managing award-winning productions and the distribution of films across Africa in over 20 countries. She is Head of Production, producing several independent features, documentaries, and television series, which have screened at Sundance, Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, Toronto and IDFA and over 100 other festivals.
Tamsin is an alumna of EAVE Producers Workshop, DEENTAL In Cannes and Berlinale Talents. She has been on the selection committee for the NFVF and the SAFTAs, and on the jury of DIFF and the Hubert Bals Fund
Alette Schoon
Position: docShare
Alette Schoon teaches a new generation of documentary filmmakers at Rhodes University in Makhanda. She’s passionate about the industry and has been researching the ethics practices of SA documentary filmmakers. Before teaching at the university Alette worked as a filmmaker, making documentary films and short inserts for SABC and eTV. She still makes films and is currently in post-production with her new film Black Ink. Alette has been running docLOVE in Makhanda, hosting 6 screenings this year. She is acutely aware of how extraordinary the SA documentary film industry is, with its unique and critical perspective on the world.
It’s an industry that’s worth saving, and currently it is in quite a precarious position, needing as much support as it can possibly get. If elected to serve on the board again, Alette hopes to continue working towards building better ties between academia and the film sector, and to implement an online training web series. If not, she is happy to support the new board members as a member of subcommittees.
Xoliswa Sithole
Position: docLove
Xoliswa Sithole is a 2 x BAFTA and Peabody awarding wining producer/director who is drawn to films focusing on justice, human rights and poverty alleviation. She produced the documentary “Shouting Silent” (Showtime) which explored the vulnerabilities of young girls who lost their mothers to HIV – having lost her own mother to HIV/Aids herself. She worked with True Vision TV – UK as the SA co-producer on ‘Orphans of Inkandla’ which then won her an International Emmy nomination. Her Channel 4 Documentary ‘South Africa’s Lost Girls’ with True Vision was nominated for a BAFTA. Her BBC documentary “Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children’ was shot entirely undercover.
Xoliswa Sithole is currently developing a project called‚ “Mandela – Man of Peace” which explores Mandela’s global peace efforts. Xoliswa has just finished directing (as one of the 3 directors) a 3 part series called Free At Last – Unanswered Questions?As one of her many passions Xoliswa runs a film festival focusing on 16 days of activism and violence against women and children in South Africa. She is a member of BAFTA, a founding member of filmmakers against racism.
DFA Administration
Thea Aboud
Position: Financial Administration & Public Officer
Thea Aboud started her career in industrial engineering with Iscor, and moved to local, provincial and national government. She branched out into accounting, procurement and human resources and, after 17 years, decided to work for herself. She started Shacabanga Consulting, working as a strategist and capacity-building advisor and, in cooperation with New Horizons, facilitated Business Implementation Plans for local, provincial and national government, non-profit organisations and the private sector in South Africa and other African countries.
In a complete turn-around, Thea then ran a successful take-away / bakery / general dealer in the Eastern Cape, before she returned to Johannesburg in 2010 to set up the Writers Guild of South Africa, which she still runs as Executive Officer in conjunction with the WGSA Council. Among her other clients are the Documentary Filmmakers’ Association, the South African Screen Federation, Sisters Working in Film and Television, the Southern African Freelancers’ Association and the South African Science Journalists’ Association.
Thea’s strengths lie in organisational capacity building, system analysis, financial management, strategic planning and project management, and she has a sound knowledge of the Public Finance Management Act. As a writer, she has screen credits on a children’s programme and has also been a ballet, ballroom and Latin American dancer and trainer.