Hlumela Matika is a passionate writer, director born 1986 in Uitenhage. In 2007 she obtained a bachelor’s degree in film producing from AFDA. Her first job in the industry was running negatives from Arniston to the Cape Town Film Lab on the classic commercial “MTN Community Table” directed by Teboho Mahlatsi. Over the next 12 years she dedicated herself to learning the various departments and gaining a full perspective of the industry value chain. Working as an AD and Production Coordinator in the facilitation service industry led her to work on notable productions like Safe House (2012) and Queen of Katwe (2016) among many others. Eager to practice her own creative muscle, In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Fulbright scholarship, an opportunity to further her studies at Syracuse University Upstate New York where she obtained her MFA. During this 3 year residency she wrote and directed Lalibela her first short hybrid fiction film, which was selected and screened at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (2017), The African International Film Festival (2017) and the Meraki Film Festival (2018) where it made the semi-finals in the short film round of competition. In 2018 she produced her 2nd short film The Strong Black Woman a performance art installation selected by the Berlin Women Cinemakers 2018, an online publication. In 2019 she produced a short experimental film The Body Remembers a film that explores the legacy of ethnography and self-image. In 2019 she was selected to participate at the International Filmmaking Academy in Bologna (Italy) where she took part in a directing program under the mentorship of Christian Mungiu. Following this she went on to produce the narrative film TAB (2019) a film that explores father daughter relationships, the film is scheduled to premiere at the New York African film festival 2020 in August. Her expanding interest in exploring the female gaze and subjectivity on screen has seen her shadow the powerful female directors like Mira Nair (Amelia) and Emma Sullivan (on The Watch for BBC America) who remain mentors in her film career. Her recent experimental short film UKuhlolwa kwePhupha premiered at this year’s National Arts Festival hosted online. And her upcoming short film MBALI was selected at Berlinale Durban Talents.