Rough Cut Lab Africa 2023 Call for Submissions

January 30, 2023
A lifetime dreaming of your story. Years researching, raising funds. Months pouring over text and proposals, rejections and victories. Eventually production starts, and stops. Subjects’ lives change and alter the narrative possibilities. That’s ok though, it’s part of the thrill. Budgets get higher, funding runs lower; but you manage, somehow. Finally, you feel you’re ready […]
A lifetime dreaming of your story. Years researching, raising funds. Months pouring over text and proposals, rejections and victories. Eventually production starts, and stops. Subjects’ lives change and alter the narrative possibilities. That’s ok though, it’s part of the thrill. Budgets get higher, funding runs lower; but you manage, somehow. Finally, you feel you’re ready for the edit, you think you’re ready. Then the real problems begin.

Rough Cut Lab Africa, RCLA, supports independent documentary films in their rough cut stage by pairing up directors and editors with African and Pan-African story consultants from all fields in the filmmaking world, including editors, directors, producers, programmers, academics, curators and critics. In partnership with the National Film and Video Foundation, the South African Guild of Editors, Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, the Goethe Institute and the Refinery, we invite 9 projects over two weeks to engage and receive targeted finishing support when they eventually lock story.

RCLA 2023 is a virtual programme and will be held from the 20th of May until the 3rd of June 2023. This call is open to African documentary projects and African filmmakers and editors with a working rough cut. We also encourage producers to apply and attend. The film will need to have a working and viewable rough cut, a coherent assembly could be considered but we cannot accommodate rushes with no edit. If a project has been chosen the previous year, they are not eligible to enter with a new project in the following year.

Submission criteria:

  • Project title and length. Films need to be independent and 60 mins or above.

  • Country and nationality.

  • One-page synopsis.

  • Online screener link and password to the viewable rough cut.

  • One page each from the director and editor outlining the difficulties currently experienced with the film’s current structure and / or problematic areas in the story.

  • Coherent log of material filmed and available.

Deadline:  On or before 4pm (SAT), Friday 07th of April 2023.

For queries, please contact: info@2023.encounters.co.za

Apply here.