Meet the film director of MaMlambo, Gcobisa Yako, the panelist for Africa Day celebration. In 2022 Gcobisa became one of the 6 winners of the african folktale reimagined anthology competition by Netflix and Unesco and spent the year crafting her short film ‘Mamlambo’, which premiered on netflix in March of 2023.
The concept was inspired by the folktale Mamlambo. “I didn’t quite like the fact that it was the only woman centered folktale I could remember and that it always had such a vilifying narrative. So I took it upon myself to rewrite that narrative,” Gcobisa says.
She is driven by the hunger for representation of marginalized communities and drawn towards stories that are created with intention, as well as help shift perceptions.
An achievement of pride is having her first film premiered on Netflix at just 27.
Interesting fact: "Gcobisa draws on muses such as Charlotte Maxeke and Yolanda Dyantyi to symbolically tell the intergenerational stories of Black people and Black academics. Inspired by the mundane, everyday lives of her community."
When: 25 May 2023
Where: 2A Highdale Rd, Glen Anil, Durban North (AFDA Durban Campus)
18 Lower Scott road, Observatory, Cape Town (AFDA Cape Town Campus)
Johannesburg venue (tbc)
Time: 18:00
RSVP: comms@swiftsa.org.za
Open to our SWIFT members and the public! We're looking forward to #AfricaDay celebration and having a deep discussion with the panel behind MaMlambo.