• Wits University has found 15 young deaf people to take part in a 6-month film production internship, the first in South Africa.
• The 15 young people are learning the basics of filmmaking over the 6-month course, including from the concept phase all the way to post-production.
• At the end of the course, the young filmmakers will showcase their short films at the Wits Deaf Film and Art Festival in 2025.

The University of the Witwatersrand has launched a new film production internship which will equip 15 deaf students with the necessary skills to enter the world of filmmaking, eventually culminating in the production of a short film to be aired at the Wits Centre for Deaf Studies (CFDS) Deaf Film and Art Festival next year.

The university has called the internship “groundbreaking.”

According to the university, the internship is the first film production internship specifically aimed at deaf individuals in South Africa, and will see 15 students take part in a six-month fully immersive and interactive course at the CFDS, led by award-winning author and film producer Nenio Mbazima.

The interns have already started learning the very basics, with an introduction to conceptualizing a story, then to more advanced courses, like script adaptation, to videography to post-production.

“I am hopeful that by the end of this project, the 15 Deaf youth will return to their communities and establish their own small businesses as video producers, offering services to film events like weddings, parties, and other special occasions,” Mbazima, who himself is deaf, told Wits in September when the internship was first announced.

“My goal is for them to not only gain entrepreneurial skills but also be able to find employment in video production companies, where their Deafness will not be seen as a limitation, but rather as an asset.”

The internship was made possible by a grant from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC)

“This is a monumental step towards inclusion, empowerment, and artistic expression for the Deaf community. We are grateful to the NLC for their grant,” says Prof. Claudine Storbeck, Associate Professor at the Centre for Deaf Studies.

The 15 young people are already involved as applications for the programme officially closed some time ago.

[Image – Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash]