Sesihle Manzini
area: Film
Key Facts
nationality
South Africaarea
Filmresidence
Dutywarecommending institution
BMWKMStime period
January 2026 - February 2026Sesihle Manzini is a South African filmmaker working at the intersection of African history, theology, and memory. Her work spans business and human rights, film, research-based storytelling, and public dialogue, with a sustained focus on land, faith, and the afterlives of colonial disruption. Through a practice grounded in theological inquiry and cinematic storytelling, she examines how communities negotiate history, power, and belonging.
Her recent works include A Piece of Ground (2023), a documentary engaging contemporary land justice debates through personal narrative and theology, recognised at international film festivals, and Idinga (2025), a short film exploring faith, betrayal, and resistance during the Xhosa frontier wars.
Manzini is the 2026 recipient of the Goethe-Institut Global Perspectives Grant, through which she will research the hidden history of Black rugby in South Africa’s rural Eastern Cape, uncovering a parallel sporting world erased from the country’s national narrative. Her work has been presented in academic, cultural, and civil society spaces across Southern Africa and internationally.
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Sesihle Manzini is a fellow of the “Focus International” program, which was launched in 2023 in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS). The program invites young cultural practitioners from Kosovo (2023–2025) and South Africa (2025–2027) to Austria to complete two-month internships at selected art institutions in Vienna. The aim is to provide participants with valuable professional experience while also enriching the host institutions through their collaboration and perspectives.
During her residency at MQ, Manzini will support the team of Tricky Women / Tricky Realities contribute to the festival’s archival and curatorial work, and thereby advance its mission of making feminist perspectives visible through animated films by women and gender-queer artists. Her work will include cataloguing films, organising and contextualising archival materials, and supporting the preservation and visibility of diverse feminist voices in animation. In addition, she will support festival planning, editorial coordination, and digital outreach, contributing both analytical and communications expertise to the Tricky Women / Tricky Realities team.