Bridget has been working in television, media and film for over twenty years and has produced some of the highest-rated shows on South African television such as U Gugu no Andile, Monna wa Minno, Usindiso, Dreamworld, End Game and Sticks and Stones. Most recently she has completed production on a 156 Episode Telenovella for SABC, Keeping Score. In 2004 she was the South African Co-producer on the Oscar-nominated HOTEL RWANDA.

In 2003 she started Luna Films with Neil Brandt, a production company based in Johannesburg. She is currently a Co-Owner and Director of Fireworxmedia, which is one of the most Awarded Companies in South Africa. Through both companies she has produced over ten television dramas and three feature films.

She is a Co-Producer of the feature film TASTE OF RAIN which was shown at the Durban International Film Festival in 2012 and screened on the cable network, MNET. Her most recent production is the feature film, The Chemo Club a comedy heist film which will be released in July 2018.

Bridget spent the Summer of 2014 as a guest of the Producers Guild of America through its Diversity Programme and at Revelations Entertainment developing her feature project, THE NIGHT OUTSIDE which starts Principal Photography in August 2018.

She has been at the forefront of acquiring and creating the vision for Moon Valley Studios, a female-driven Studio initiative to set up a creative filmmaker’s hub and think tank for African filmmakers.

LIFE… AFTER DEATH

Ali, now 32, arrived in the village, 14 years hence, a disgraced daughter of an outspoken divorcee, and also pregnant out of wedlock. Her suitor and future husband, MICHAEL, is the pride of the family and his mother is outraged that he should choose to marry a “high hipped whore” like Ali. Nonetheless, having undergone the humiliating Forgiveness ceremony to be forgiven for her sins, and having endured the icy reception of her in-laws, Ali’s fiery spirit remains intact.

Michael proves to be a faithful and loving husband and a good father to their six children but he works away from home most of the time.  Soon after her arrival in the village, Ali befriends the timid, shy Kauna. Kauna is drawn to the boisterous, scandal-ridden Ali, even though her life is very different.

Kauna, also in her thirties, daughter of a preacher and teacher from another village, was a wide-eyed virgin when she married SHANGE. She has known nothing but abuse and infidelity in that time.

As Ali gets to know Kauna and her sad life, she incites Kauna to leave her husband. But Kauna is church bound, and an obedient daughter. She knows that her God-fearing mother will die if she should divorce Shange, and she takes her vows seriously. Till Death Do Us Part.

Then Shange dies…

When a husband dies, the earth opens up and all manner of creatures crawl out, in the form of long lost relatives, who by traditional law and custom, and pure greed and gumption, stand to inherit from the man’s estate. His widow is at their mercy. Accusations of witchcraft, murder and adultery are the order of the day. If she does not show enough grief, she is likely to lose everything – maybe even her life.

Kauna knows this. On the day that Shange dies, she remains dry-eyed. And on the second day, she doesn’t cry. Nor the next. Suddenly Ali, who has always thumbed her nose, as best as she knows how, at the powers that be, is very afraid. She watches in horror as her timid friend stands up to Shange’s relatives, refusing to shed a tear for their loss. The pride of the family is at stake.

Kauna’s refusal to mourn cannot be a private affair. It is of public concern: one small quiet woman who refuses to mourn sending the community and family into a spin.

Ayanda trained as Script Editor in “After nine” – SABC 1 Mini-Series through Sediba. She worked in the SABC Content Hub Drama department since December 2006.

She started as an Intern and grew from “Intern” to Acting Head of Genre during her time at the SABC. In 2013 moved to M-Net, A Pay-TV platform where she worked as a Commissioning Editor. For three months after resignation, Ayanda worked as a Story Development Consultant for the channel on their key Telenovelas.

She was Creative Producer in the Female Filmmaker slate – 2016. Ayanda also Mentors & Trains for KZNFC FITI Program as well as NFVF Spark. She currently works as a Head Writer / Script Editor /Script Writer for features and most recently Creative producer for Dramas.

ONE DAY IN JUNE

When Afika arrives at the shelter for the homeless in Shayamoya – Kokstad, she is confronted with the reality of her situation. Having ran from her adopted home with her boyfriend at 15 after a huge fallout with her adoptive mother about her true identity, now almost 20; she knows it’s time to go back home. Afika is met by a super sweet Zenande who was abandoned right after birth by her teen mother. They soon become very close, and when Afika plans to escape to go find her mother, Zenande reveals she too needs to find her Mom.

The two then set off to find their mothers. During the search, using very little information on their biological mothers, Zenande keeps asking a lot of information from Afika who gives it freely. On day while each is on the search as usual, Zenande meets her mother – in Bhongweni Township and makes a decision not to introduce herself. Her mother is a poor drunk who will not change Zenande’s life. On her way back to where she and Afika stay, under the fallen bridge; she sees a woman who resembles Afika.

This is Priscilla, Zenande’s Mother whose faith and guilt won’t let her give up on the search to find her daughter whom she gave up for adoption at birth. She drives a huge car and looks really rich. Zenande trails the woman and eventually meets her. She keeps this secret from Afika. Zenande approaches Priscilla, Afika’s Mom under the pretense of being Afika. Priscilla is not very convinced; she feels no connection to this late teen who is so eager to please her. Police won;t help her look any more because her child has been found. Her prayer partners, family, and friends convince her that this is the miracle they prayed for, she must accept this blessing. It is very rare for a mother to be reunited with their adoptive child. This, together with her guilt of giving up her child at birth forces her to embrace Zenande. However, her gut instinct keeps telling her something is off.

She embarks on a fresh search to find her real child so she can prove that this one is not Afika. Zenande steals moments to go “help” Afika find her mother, she says nothing about what she has discovered. Afik finds Zenande’s mother and is very happy to tell her friend. But, Zenande denies this saying that woman is not her mother, not even her relative. Few days later, she comes to tell Afika that she says she has found her real Mother. Afika is confused and one day she decides to speak to the woman, Zoleka. Zoleka confirms that she is indeed Zenande’s mother but Zen is better off without her. Afuika sees this too, the woman is in no state of raising a child.

Zenande comes to see Afika, with few things to wear and some food. She ahs cleaned up real good. Afika can’t help but be jealous. Afika starts insisting on meeting Zenande’s mother Zenande stops visiting her altogether after promising to arrange for this to happen. Now Afika is without help on her search to find her mother. What she doesn’t know is that Priscilla is also secretly continuing the search to find her daughter. When Zenande sees that Priscilla is searching for her child, she plots a way to ensure the two never meet again by any means necessary. She unravels and her mental imbalance starts to play out. She is obsessed with Priscilla now and decides to ensure that Afika dies so that she can continue living warmly as a beloved daughter.

It takes faith and love to reunite Priscilla and Afika, and this happens right at the knick of time when Zenande is just about to kill Afika. Zenande is committed to a mental hospital and Afika returns to her mother.

Professor of Practice, Humanities Faculty: University of Johannesburg
• Winner Mbokodo Award for Literature for her creative non-fiction novel The Keeper of the Kumm
• Shortlisted SA Literary Award
• Long Listed Alan Paton Award
• Nominee 2016 SA Film & TV Awards for Best Director & Best Documentary
• Winner of the inaugural Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts
• Winner of the Nordic Publicistklubben Prize for Journalism
• Knight International Journalism Fellow
• Selection Panel: SA National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF)
• Founder of VIA – Vision in Africa, a media organisation, that specialises in filmmaking, creative writing and cross-platform storytelling

A writer, award-winning journalist, playwright and filmmaker. In 2019 appointed the University of Johannesburg’s first-ever Professor of Practice. Commissioned by the Volksoperahuis of Amsterdam to write Krotoa Eva van de Kaap, a play that premiered in the Netherlands to standing ovations before a sold-out run in South Africa in 2019.

Her seminal dance drama about Khoisan identity, The Keeper of the Kumm (based on the novel of the same name), opened on the main programme at the National Arts Festival (NAF). A play she co-authored, My Word, Redesigning Buckingham Palace, was chosen for a run on London’s West End and for the main programme at the NAF. The Main Festival also selected another of her plays, Cold Case – Revisiting Dulcie September. The latter won both the inaugural Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts as well as a Standard Bank Audience Award. SA Producer for the BBC mini-series Mandela the Living Legend. Chair of the 2018 & 2019 Alan Paton Literary Award Jury. Guest Lecturer at the University of the Free State, the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. Member of the International Emmy Awards 2018 Jury.

Led media projects for the UK’s Thomson Foundation in association with Oxford University as well as Cardiff University. Her feature documentary film Jozi Gold (co-Director & SA Producer) has been chosen for a special screening on World Environment Day 2019 to launch the 21st Encounters Film Festival (SA).

The Sixties. Cape Town, South Africa. Buckingham Palace is a dingy row of mouldy cottages in the heart of District Six. A vibrant community is thriving on the slopes of Table Mountain where an outrageous life force flows like a torrent through the homes and streets.

Through a motley mix of characters, we experience the triumphs and despair of this exuberant community. Through the eyes of a young schoolboy Richard, a victim of racism in his own family, we experience District Six in its hey-day. Fascinated and often swept up by the forces that drive this close-knit community he tells it like it is, innocently and without prejudice. Zoot, poet and petty criminal who is also the tap-dancing King of the District, is fresh from a stint at the notorious Roeland Street jail when he stumbles into the Buckingham Palace tenement looking for a job and a place to stay. Tyrannical Mary Brown, the Madam of the Casbah House of Pleasure offers him a room and employs him as her bouncer and handyman.

Hardly settled into his new routine he falls for Moena, the shy Muslim girl next door. But her overprotective brothers, nicknamed The Jungle Boys who are notorious for their unconventional fighting methods, threaten the budding romance.

Soon Katzen, owner of Buckingham Palace, warns Zoot that there is a government official snooping around the District, asking for people’s personal details especially their race. There are rumours that the apartheid government has plans to destroy this spirited community. Suspecting an “evil law” is in the offing, similar to the those that caused him and his Jewish family to flee Germany after the war, the ailing Mr Katzen refuses to comply with the government’s request to supply information about his tenants. After his sudden death, Mary’s stunned to find that he has disinherited his opportunistic son Dieter, and left his properties to her.

Early in 1966 banner news headlines proclaim District Six, mostly working-class and mixed-race, an area set aside for white occupation exclusively. What follows is the anger, frustration protests and meetings while the bulldozers are sent in to do its punitive work. Zoot has to make a choice between political activism and the love of his life. He says goodbye to Moena as most people are leaving their beloved District. Zoot chooses to fight… even the bulldozers.

Reabetswe Moeti is a SAFTA winning writer and director from Johannesburg, South Africa. She’s currently showrunner on a new Showmax original comedy series that she created.

She has experience as a comedy and drama head writer and as a director. Rea holds a Masters Degree from the acclaimed National Film And Television  School in the UK and has work experience as a writer and director in the film and television industry in both South Africa and London. Her passion and flair for cool and unique storytelling set her apart as a contemporary film and TV creative.

Rea aspires to make magical realism influenced films and television shows which explore the quirky and magical side of contemporary culture and particularly African cultures, stories which explore and amalgamate ancient African ideals and evolving global lifestyles, like her first short film “The Virgin Vegan” about a Butcher’s daughter  who returns to her township home with her Cambridge MBA and is expected to run the family butchery which funded her studies, but she’s a VEGAN.

Rea’s second award-winning short film Mma Moeketsi is about the true story of a woman who loses her son at the Marikana miner’s strike in 2012 where 34 miners in South Africa were gunned down by the police during a strike.

There are many medical negligence cases in South Africa but the

Life Esidimeni tragedy is the most negligent case in post-apartheid SA, involving the deaths of over 143 people, considering this “the greatest cause of human rights violation” in democratic South Africa.

Two fictional brothers, Langa and Nhlakanipho, once inseparable, come to a crossroads when ’Nipho’ who suffers severe autism, becomes too much for his brother’s young family to handle. A hard decision is made, and Nipho is sent to Life Esidimeni psychiatric facility. There’s devastating heart break when the two brother’s separate for the first time, Langa with feelings of guilt and Nipho feeling discarded. When Nipho arrives at Esidimeni, his thoughts are on escaping and starting a new life alone, but his new friends are only interested in escaping for an excursion to McDonald’s.

Former school teacher and schizophrenic RASTA, an aspiring dancer and victim of post-traumatic stress disorder MANTWA and maths genius with attention deficit disorder CHUBABA become Nipho’s accomplices in his short-lived breakout plan. Through therapy and Nipho’s found love of cooking, his condition improves. Peaking through the window of the psychiatric care, and reaching into the human stories of the victims, we observe as Nipho learns to live his life to the fullest and in a turn of events, even finds love at Esidimeni.

Unknown to everyone, tragedy comes crashing in when the patients are moved from Esidimeni and death looms.