Sunshine Cinema is a solar powered mobile cinema that hosts movie screenings and media workshops in diverse sites across the African continent from community halls to shipping containers. The organization aims to support social change and grassroots movements by creating a network of storytellers, media makers and designers and facilitating transfer of skills and knowledge through communal cinema experiences.
Sydelle Willow Smith is a photographer/video director working across Africa focusing on memory, migration and identity. Her studies studies have focused on film, visual anthropology and she holds an Masters of Social Science in African Studies from The University of Oxford. One of the most exciting features of her work is the extent to which it is accessible to public audiences experimenting with modes of public participation. It is within the context of public participation that she shines, and where she has drawn together her interests in media, anthropology, and socio-political interventions. Smith cofounded the solar powered mobile cinema initiative, Sunshine Cinema, in 2013.
Rowan Pybus is a self taught filmmaker and video artist with a background in Graphic Arts. He founded Makhulu Media in 2004, an ethical media agency based in Cape Town, South Africa. The agency strives to produce content that is visually engaging and personally empowering. They have worked with a range of clients from big brands like Adidas, Volkswagen, Red Bull Media House as well as dynamic initiatives with UNAIDS, Global Citizen, Doctors Without Borders, and a host of international celebrities ranging from U2, Radiohead, Steve Aoki. Makhulu’s short films focusing on street art with Faith47, and others dealing with environmental issues have won numerous awards from the UN Forest Film Awards, National Geographic, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, Wild Talk Africa, and the Loeries. Inspired by the grassroots stories Makhulu was documenting , Rowan cofounded Sunshine Cinema in 2013 to develop a platform to uplift active citizens voices.
