Milisuthando Bongela Launches Self-Distribution for “Milisuthando” Across Southern Africa + Global Streaming

South African filmmaker and cultural critic Milisuthando Bongela is bringing her debut documentary “Milisuthando” back to Southern Africa via a self-distribution campaign that extends from festivals to homes, book clubs, and community spaces. The film is also available to stream on the Criterion Channel, as well as via its official website and Patreon.

After premiering in competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and screening at more than 30 festivals worldwide, the five-part documentary — and personal essay — explores love, race, memory, and belonging with Bongela’s own experiences growing up in the former Republic of Transkei, an unrecognized homeland established under apartheid to enforce segregation and deny Black South Africans full citizenship.

The film uses archival footage, the filmmaker’s own memories, and interviews to trace Bongela’s realization that the sheltered world of her Transkei childhood took place inside an apartheid system that enforced racial separation and used state violence to maintain it.

Screenings are beginning with partnerships in Johannesburg (with the Read, Honey and Jozi Book Clubs), Durban (The Lit Social Club), and Cape Town (Black Authors Book Club), with further events planned across Southern Africa.

The release is both a homecoming and a collective reflection on South Africa’s past and present.