The Team

Anita Khanna | Writer | Producer | Impact Producer/ co-director: Climate Story Lab ZA

South African based writer and producer, Anita Khanna, has writing and producing credits that include the award winning documentaries Miners Shot Down, Everything Must Fall and How to Steal a Country, plus a drama series for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, The Mating Game. In 2011 Anita drove the first live event of Good Pitch on African soil (Johannesburg 2011). Since then she has directed the Tri Continental Social Impact Film Festival, (2011 – 2018), and produced three documentary series. She is currently collaborating with creatives and activists in Southern Africa to make Hotspot Climate Series, a six part documentary that profiles climate justice activists in five Southern African countries. Anita is also a proud award winning Impact Producer (BritDoc Impact Award 2015) for her film campaign work on Miners Shot Down.

Liani Maasdorp | Film Lecturer | Impact Consultant/ co-director: Climate Story Lab ZA

Liani is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Film & Media Studies at the University of Cape Town. She convenes the Master of Documentary Arts degree programme, undergraduate Screen Production courses and the UCT Sunshine Cinema Film Impact Screening Facilitator short course. 

She was one of the producers of Strike a Rock, which opened the Encounters International Documentary Film Festival in 2017, screened at Sheffield DocFest, IDFA and won the Best South African Documentary award at DIFF.  She consults on and teaches impact strategy design. She has organised several impact events, including the UCT Encounters Impact Bootcamp and Impact Springboard. She is passionate about using stories to influence perceptions, behaviour and policy.

Miki Redelinghuys | Documentary Filmmaker | Impact Producer/ co-director: Climate Story Lab ZA

miki-pic

Miki is a documentary filmmaker who believes story has the power to bring positive change. She is a co-founder of Plexus Films, consults as impact producer, serves as programme director for the UCT Sunshine Cinema Impact course and is co-director of the Climate Story Lab SA. In 2018 she initiated the DFA docLOVE screenings in Cape Town, which has grown into a countrywide program aimed at building documentary audiences and social engagement through film.  Mostly, she loves being in the world with a camera which is why she spent 6 years filming Mother City which premiered in June 2024 at Sheffield docFest and opened the Encounters SA International Documentary Film Festival.

Tarha McKenzie | Programme Manager

Tarha has been an independent contractor in the film industry since 2011, focusing on Programme and Distribution Management. Her career highlights include managing Africa’s premiere documentary festival – Encounters. She helped create a pipeline for African content at Big World Cinema, coordinated the Black Women Disrupt web series competition, and managed the catalogue for TechRow – a New York based immersive educational start-up. Tarha assisted in connecting audiences and developing new business models for digital non-fiction stories at Electric South, and was the Programme Manager for their annual AR/VR lab and research projects. She is currently Project Managing the Climate Story Lab South Africa.

Thihangwi Ramutsindela | Programme Coordinator

Born in Limpopo, raised in Cape Town, Thihangwi is a second year MA student specialising in wildlife documentary and nature conservation in Southern Africa, at the University of Cape Town. She is a passionate tutor and facilitator who enjoys sparking conversations around film and environmental issues both inside the classroom and to the community around her.

Mphatso Nkhoma | Social Media Coordinator

My name is Mphatso Nkhoma, I am a Malawian in Cape Town. I am also: a UCT Screen Production student, the Climate Story Lab ZA and UCT TV social media manager, an Encounters 2024 Film Reader, the co-founder of the African Feminist Society at UCT, and an avid reader of African literature. My goal for the future is to change the distribution system of African Cinema. I am very interested in the work Climate Story Lab ZA does because they bring to the forefront the realities of climate change within the continent. Very often we are relegated to the fringes of climate action imaginations and that breeds a sense of helplessness against the very tangible effects of Climate change. With their work, we can see and hear how so many people are acting to save their own lives and futures in Africa.

Molly Maunganidze | Administrative Officer

Molly is driven, and passionate about people. She has a wealth of administrative experience  gained from working in the Gender, Media and Development non-governmental sector and at  University of Cape Town ‘s Television Studio (UCT TV). At UCT TV  she handles administration portfolios, studio and post-production facilities bookings, and manages the Centre for Film and Media Studies (CFMS) production equipment pool. Molly is excited to be part of the CSLZA project where she serves as the administrative officer.  She enjoys running for fun and will be doing her 2nd half-marathon in November.

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