Synopsis
In the late 1980s, private security guard Louis van Schoor fatally shot at least 39 people in the South African city of East London. All of his victims were Black. The youngest was just 12 years old.

Van Schoor was arrested in 1991. With many of his shootings signed off by local police as “justifiable homicides,” he served just 12 years in prison after being convicted of only seven of the murders.

Free from prison, he is finally ready to speak, even as, 30 years on, his victims are still fighting for closure and justice.

Accolades
• Best TV Feature Documentary nominee, International Documentary Association
• Over a million views on YouTube
• Nominated at AIB & longlisted for a Grierson Award

South Africa | 2024 | 75m

Did you know?
The Apartheid Killer is co-directed by South African Isa-Lee Jacobson and Charlie Northcott.

Jacobson had spent 20 years investigating van Schoor and made the documentary Daddy’s Girl about van Schoor’s daughter.

Northcott previously made the International Emmy-nominated documentaries Black Axe and Sweet Sweet Codeine, as well as the Peabody-winning Anatomy of a Killing.

Van Schoor passed away in 2024 at 73. Northcott wrote his obituary for the BBC.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African true-crime documentaries →

BBC Africa Eye investigative journalist Runako Celina

Synopsis
You may think you know this story. 23-year-old Mona Kizz was a Ugandan influencer who became known as “the queen of #Dubaiportapotty” - a disturbing online trend of Arab men pooping in African women’s mouths. When the clip went viral, she jumped to her death from a Dubai high-rise.

Except that’s not the truth. BBC Africa Eye investigative journalist Runako Celina says, “The internet is wrong about Mona Kizz, whose real name is Monic Karungi, and the reality is even darker than I could have imagined.”

The documentary investigates allegations that Ugandan women are being lured to Dubai with promises of work, only to be forced into prostitution. It shows that Monic was not the only woman to fall to her death from a Dubai high-rise - and raises questions about whether either death was really a suicide.

Accolades
• Winner: 2026 Current Affairs: International - Royal Television Society Television Journalism Award
• Shortlisted: Best Documentary, Broadcast Digital Awards.
• Over 1.8 million views on YouTube

Uganda | 2025 | 64 min

Did you know?

You can listen to the Gracie-winning podcast here. It was also a finalist at the Amnesty Media Awards

The original BBC article on the documentary is here.

If you have any information to add to this investigation, please contact runako@bbc.co.uk

Details of organisations offering information about or support after sexual abuse or with feelings of despair are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries →

Robert Liensol in Soleil Ô (Oh Sun)

Synopsis
Med Hondo is best known to much of Europe for dubbing Eddie Murphy’s character, Donkey, into French in the Oscar-winning animated film Shrek. He also dubbed Rafiki in The Lion King, Dillon in Predator and Hallorann in The Shining.

The Al Jazeera documentary, Med Hondo: A founding father of African cinema, shifts the focus back onto his celebrated career as a director, which was partly funded by his dubbing work.

His debut feature, Soleil Ô (Oh Sun), about a Mauritanian who emigrates to Paris, won the top prize at Locarno in 1970 and screened at Berlin and Cannes Critics’ Week. It was briefly banned in France but now regularly appears in lists of the top 10 African films of all time, from the BFI to the Tarifa-Tangiers African Film Festival (FCAT)

Nous aurons toute la mort pour dormir, his documentary on the Sahrawi independence movement in Western Sahara, won the Forum of New Cinema Prize at Berlin in 1977. His later films won the top awards at key African festivals like Carthage (Arabs and N*ggers, Your Neighbours) and FESPACO (Sarraounia).

All this after stowing away on a ship from Mauritania to France and facing police scrutiny in Marseille because he lacked legal papers.

Soleil Ô was the first film restored under the African Film Heritage Project, the initiative launched by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation, UNESCO, FEPACI and Cineteca di Bologna to preserve African cinema. Hondo was actively involved in the restoration and lived to see Soleil Ô rediscovered by a new generation of critics after screenings at Cannes and London in 2017.

He passed away in 2019 and was buried in Morocco - framed in the documentary as a protest against his treatment in both Mauritania and France.

Mauritania | 2022 | 46 min

Did you know?
We featured this as the closing film for our #AfricaMonthFilmChallenge. The documentary of his life is a reminder that African films have been winning some of the world’s top prizes for over 50 years, but it’s also uncomfortable to see how little progress has been made structurally.

As the documentary shows, his cast worked for free on his first film and he had to mortgage his house to make his last film. Even when he could find funding, he struggled to find distributors to market his films. Mauritania, the country of his birth, didn’t screen his films in cinema while he was alive. As I write this, the only film of his I can watch legally in South Africa is Soleil Ô (Oh Sun), which I’ve belatedly discovered on Mubi. It’s now next on my watchlist.

It shouldn’t be this hard to find classic African films in Africa. That’s why this Substack and the Plot Twist Africa YouTube channel exist.

Read Hondo’s 1979 manifesto, What is cinema for us?. It still strikes a nerve. There is still much work to be done.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries→

©️ Héctor Mediavilla

Synopsis:
The best-dressed documentary of all time, about the ‘society of elegant persons of the Congo.’

Accolades:
A Grand Clio, as well as honours at Cannes, The One Show and other major advertising awards.

The Republic of the Congo | 2014 | 5 min

Did you know?

“In life, you cannot always choose what you do, but you can always choose who
you are.”

That’s the opening line of the Guinness Sapeurs ad, which celebrates the ‘society of elegant persons of the Congo.’

The Republic of the Congo | 2014 | 1 min 40

Adland makes its money spotting trends and capitalising on them, so there’d already been growing interest in the Sapeurs.

Popularised by Congolese music icon Papa Wemba from the 1970s onwards, La Sape became the subject of two acclaimed photography books: Daniele Tamagni’s Gentlemen of Bacongo (2009) and Héctor Mediavilla’s S.A.P.E. (2013), a collaboration with Congolese author Alain Mabanckou.

Another breakthrough moment came with Losing You, a sapeur-inspired music video directed by Melina Matsoukas for Solange Knowles. Filmed in Cape Town rather than the Congo, it won Best Pop Video – International at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards and has over 35 million YouTube views.

South Africa | 2012 | 4 min

Mediavilla had already spent seven years photographing the movement when Guinness hired him to to contextualise the ad above with a five-minute documentary about the Sapeurs.

As Mediavilla reflects on his website, “This Guinness campaign was very successful and made sapeurs better-known around the world. Personally, after struggling with my internal contradictions (should I accept a commercial assignment on a topic I knew very well since years, which I had already deeply documented or not?), I was happy to help my Congolese friends to get reasonably well payed for their work and get more audience for their art.”

Of course, there is much to debate here, as Ethan Zuckerman explores, including questions of appropriation and appropriateness.

“At the start of the 20th century when the French arrived in the Congo, the myth of Parisian elegance was born among the youth of the Bakongo ethnic group, who were working for the colonisers. At that time, many considered white men to be superior, due to their sophistication and elegance,” says Mediavilla on his website. “In 1922, Grenard André Matsoua was the first Congolese man ever to come back from Paris dressed as a genuine Frenchman. His arrival caused great admiration among his fellow countrymen; he became known as the first Grand Sapeur.”

Should we glamourise a consumerist movement inspired by colonial fashion?

These are debates worth having, especially since the campaign ran primarily outside Africa (Guinness had Made of Black running on the continent instead).

Whatever the origins and appropriateness of the movement, after watching you’ll be inspired to dress better and live with more joie de vivre.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries →

Synopsis
Fantastic Man celebrates William Onyeabor, the Nigerian synth pioneer who released nine albums in just eight years in the 70s and 80s.

Nigeria | 2014 | 31 min

Did you know?
Onyeabor was only discovered internationally in the early 2000s when “Better Change Your Mind” was included on cult crate-digger releases like Strut’s Nigeria 70 and Luaka Bop’s World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds Of West Africa.

Comb & Razor blogger Uchenna Ikonne pitched the idea of a best-of compilation to Luaka Bop and then spent nine months in Nigeria trying to get Onyeabor to sign off on the rights.

The result, Who is William Onyeabor?, was Time Magazine’s fourth best album of 2013 and Pitchfork’s best reissue of the year.

"I was going to call the record This Is William Onyeabor, up until the point we realised we didn't know anything about him," Luaka Bop label head Yale Evelev told NPR's Arun Rath. "And then we changed the title to Who Is William Onyeabor?"

Despite the internet age, Onyeabor was, to quote BBC, “one of modern music’s greatest enigmas.”

Evelev had already tried calling for more context on his music. “He said to me, 'Why would I want to talk about that? I just want to talk about Jesus.' And then he hung up the phone.”

So they released his best-of compilation without the usual context, and without him doing interviews or touring.

Instead the label rounded up a super-group of his fans to perform his songs live, including Dev Hynes from Blood Orange, Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, David Byrne of Talking Heads, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Luke Jenner of The Rapture, Money Mark, The Lijadu Sisters and more. Remixes followed from Hot Chip, John Talabot and more.

“Who is William Onyeabor?” is the mystery that drives Jake Sumner’s documentary for Noisey, Fantastic Man, which follows Luaka Bop’s attempts to track him down at his palace in Enugu and find out more about the mythical cult figure.

The mystery remains at the end of the film, but you’ll have a sense of wonder too, after seeing Onyeabor through the eyes of fans like Femi Kuti, Human League’s Martyn Ware, Caribou’s Dan Snaith and Blur’s Damon Albarn.

Onyeabor passed away peacefully in his sleep in 2017. A year later, Apple soundtracked its iPhone 7 commercial, Barbershop, with “Fantastic Man”, winning Golds at Cannes, The Clios and The One Show, as well as Best in Show at ADC. The spot is now part of the AICP permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

After decades in obscurity, Onyeabor’s music continues to find new audiences. “Fantastic Man” has appeared in Sex Education, Shameless and Our Flag Means Death, while “Body & Soul” features on the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto.

Onyeabor’s music was ahead of its time but remained largely unheard outside Nigeria for decades until it found champions willing to distribute and market it to the world.

That's part of the reason this Substack exists: to help more people discover the remarkable African films that are already out there, waiting to find their audience.

And here’s the Apple ad, directed by Dougal Wilson:

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African music documentaries →

Synopsis
Liverpool celebrates Mohamed Salah's nine-year career at the club, with teammates, coaches and family reflecting on the Egyptian’s record-breaking legacy.

Accolades
Over a million views in its first three days online

Egypt | 2026 | 59 min

Did you know?
Salah outscored three entire teams in his debut Premier League season, setting a then league record of 32 goals in a 38-game campaign.

He went on to become Liverpool’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League, in European competition, and in the UEFA Champions League, as well as the Liverpool player with the most Premier League assists.

He is also the first player in Premier League history to finish top for both goals and assists in multiple seasons.

So stand down George Weah, Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o: Salah is the king.

Even if his own daughter only rates him 7/10 as a player.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries →

Synopsis
Filmed over more than three years, Democrats charts the complex creation of Zimbabwe’s first democratic constitution.

The film follows Paul Mangwana, representing ZANU-PF, the party of Robert Mugabe, and Douglas Mwonzora, a representative of the Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.), run by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Accolades
• Best Documentary at Tribeca
• Two awards at CPH: Dox
• Paul Mangwana was named one of The Unforgettables by Cinema Eye

Zimbabwe | 2014 | 1 hr 40


Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African political documentaries →

Synopsis
In a small courthouse in Cameroon, two women are determined to change a village.

The tough-minded state prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Beatrice Ntuba are working to help women in their Muslim village find the courage to fight often difficult cases of abuse, despite pressures from their family and their community to remain silent.

Accolades
• Audience Award: IDFA, the world’s largest documentary festival
• C.I.CA.E. Award at Cannes

Cameroon | 2005 | 1 hr 48

Did you know?
Sisters in Law is co-directed by Cameroonian Florence Ayisi and festival favourite Kim Longinotto, who’s won at IDFA, the BAFTAs and Sundance with her other films.

P.S.
Don’t be put off by the workmanlike camerawork; by the time you see Beatrice scold the local men for the first time, you’ll have forgotten there’s even a camera there.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries →

It’s easy to see why triple Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) wants to play South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba.

Miriam was the first African to win a Grammy. She sang for John F. Kennedy and Marlon Brando. She performed with Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte and Dizzy Gillespie. She married five times, including legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and activist Stokely Carmichael, who popularised the phrase “Black power.” She pleaded in the United Nations for sanctions against Apartheid.

She paid a high price for her beliefs. She had her South African citizenship revoked after appearing in an anti-Apartheid documentary, Come Back, Africa. After marrying Stokely, she was effectively cancelled by mainstream America, with the couple moving to Guinea.

By any standards, she was a remarkable woman who lived an extraordinary life.

She’s celebrated in Mika Kaurismäki’s feature documentary, Mama Africa, which won the Audience Award at Berlin.

The documentary was the idea of South African co-screenwriter and co-producer Don Edkins, who was developing it with Makeba when she died in 2008, at 76. Edkins was also behind the Why Democracy? anthology, which included the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side.

South Africa | 2011 | 1 hr 30

Next month, Cynthia Erivo will be in Cape Town to star as Miriam in The Road Home, the first STUDIOCANAL film to shoot in South Africa since the CANAL+ acquisition of MultiChoice.

The SA film industry has strong opinions about the R300 million project, which is set against the backdrop of Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning 1986 album, Graceland.

Oscar nominee Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) will play Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, who launched a boycott against Paul over the album, which he said violated the United Nation’s Cultural Boycott. SAFTA nominee Thabo Rametsi (The Silverton Siege, Kalushi) will play Miriam’s husband, Hugh Masekela.

Foreign actors playing local icons is always contentious, even when the role doesn’t require a Hollywood actress to try sing, “Igqira lendlela nguqo ngqothwane.” The budget’s also getting comments, since there’s very little other commissioning on the go currently.

One thing isn’t up for debate though: the strength of the source material - something undeniable by anyone who’s seen Mama Africa or the Emmy-winning Under African Skies.

WANT MORE MAKEBA?
Mandla Dube is launching his version later this year: Miriam Makeba, Voice of Africa.

French singer Jain made a Grammy-winning music video in South Africa to honour her:

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries →

Synopsis
Photojournalist Boniface "Softie" Mwangi runs for office in a regional Kenyan election, which puts pressure on his young family and his idealism.

Accolades
• Best Feature nominee, The International Documentary Association
• Editing Award winner, Sundance: World Cinema - Documentary Category
• Boniface Mwangi was named one of the Unforgettables at CinemaEye

Sam Soko | Kenya | 2020 | 1 hr 21

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African political documentaries →

Synopsis
Liyana follows Gcina Mhlophe as she guides orphaned children in eSwatini through choosing the story they want to tell.

Accolades
• Won over 35 international awards, including Best Documentary at LA Film Festival and the Grand Prize at New York International Children's Film Festival
• 97% critics rating, Rotten Tomatoes

eSwatini | 2017 | 1 hr 17

Did you know?
Liyana was co-directed by eSwatini-born Aaron Kopp and his wife Amanda Kopp.

I invited Nigerian Shofela Coker to pitch for Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire on the strength of his animations here. He went on to earn Emmy and Annie nominations for his short in the anthology, Moremi.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African documentaries →

Synopsis
A pop star runs for president in Uganda. Can he end Museveni’s 35-year reign?

Accolades
• Oscar nominee: Best Documentary
• Critics Choice nominee: Best First Documentary Feature
• Critics Choice nominee: Best Political Documentary
• Best Feature winner, International Documentary Association
• Bobi Wine was named one of Cinema Eye’s Unforgettables

Uganda | 2022 | 1 hr 54

Did you know?
Ugandan Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp were nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary at the Directors Guild of America Awards.

Want to watch & discuss with a friend?

Share

Explore more pan-African political documentaries →