CCAM Film Advisor Office Hours: Xoliswa Sithole

LOCATION: Loria Center (in the Yale School of Architecture building!), 190 York Street, Room B50

Join us for a discussion with award-winning South African filmmaker Xoliswa Sithole, focused on documentary filmmaking as a vital tool for preserving cultural heritage, collective memory, and lived histories, moderated by Susan Youssef (CCAM Film Advisor).

Sithole will reflect on her path into documentary filmmaking and discuss how she built an independent, international career. The session will focus on practical strategies and ethical frameworks for filmmakers navigating documentary production from the ground up. The session will include a discussion of a rough cut from her new project and a walkthrough of tools and frameworks she uses to guide ethical decision-making with documentary subjects.

Xoliswa Sithole’s career began as an actress in the 1980s, appearing in landmark anti-apartheid films such as Cry Freedom, Mandela, and A Dry White Season. She later transitioned to producing and directing documentaries after serving as an Associate Producer at CNN International in 1998. A recipient of a Peabody Award and two BAFTA Awards for Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children and Orphans of Inkandla, her work spans documentary, narrative, and corporate filmmaking and has been presented at major international festivals and cultural forums. Bottom of FormXoliswa Sithole is the founder of Nayanaya Pictures Pty Ltd, co-founder of Film Makers against Racism, and co-chair of the South African Documentary Filmmakers Association. Sithole also runs a gender film festival in the rural areas of South Africa, promoting social cohesion and nation-building.

This event is a part of the CCAM Film Advisor Office Hours series, open to the Yale community, and co-sponsored by the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Yale Office of Career Strategy.

In 2025–2026, the International Programs Division of the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) invited Sithole to engage with the Yale community as part of its program featuring distinguished leaders whose work advances the understanding and preservation of cultural heritage across disciplines.