It’s all happening at AFDA OPEN DAY | THIS SATURDAY, 20 April 2024!
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to hear from key industry players within the Creative Economy at AFDA’s upcoming Open Day!
All roads lead to an AFDA campus near you!
📅Date: This Saturday, 20 April 2024
⏰Time: 10 AM to 1 PM
✅ Place: All AFDA campuses nationwide
📍Johannesburg: 41 Frost Avenue, Auckland Park
📍 Cape Town: 18 Lower Scott Road, Observatory
📍 Durban: 2A Highdale Road, Glen Anil
📍Gqeberha: 28 Bird Street, Central
At previous AFDA Open Days, we have had the privilege of hosting industry heavyweights as guest speakers, sharing how their studies at AFDA prepared them for entering the industry.
At the upcoming Open Day, you will get to hear from AFDA alumni guest speaker, producer and business owner, Flavia Motsisi. She is currently the Senior Manager of scripted content for series at Multichoice and Showmax, and producer of the series Outlaws. With a BA Honours Degree in Film and Television from AFDA and a Management Practice program from Henley Business School, Flavia has a strong background in both the creative and business aspects of the audio-visual industry. She has been involved in the production of several award-winning and internationally acclaimed shows, such as The River, Gomora, and The Wife.
You will also get to hear from the AFDA Deans at the respective AFDA campuses:
David Dennis (AFDA Johannesburg Dean): Veteran actor in South African feature film, television, musical and classical theatre, David Dennis is best known for his starring roles as Sol Grootboom on the SABC1 television drama series Soul City and Soul Buddyz. David is also a six-time prestigious Fleur du Cap Theatre Award winner, four of which are for the enormous variety of Shakespearean roles he has played. Apart from being the Dean of the AFDA Johannesburg campus, David currently stars in ‘The Brothers, Number One and A Weekend Special’, a South African political play about the rise of state capture.
Diaan Lawrenson (AFDA Cape Town Dean): Diaan Lawrenson may be better known in South African households as ‘Paula’, for her role in the role in the TV soapie 7de Laan, but she has also very successfully mined her multiple skill-set in the entertainment industry, working across all genres as an actor, producer, director and scriptwriter on a host of television shows, short films, feature films, theatre productions and music videos. Diaan started lecturing at AFDA in 2016 and was appointed as Dean of the Cape Town campus in early 2019. She is also the co-founder of the award-winning production company, Jester Productions, which has been responsible for productions in theatre, corporate and industrial theatre, DVD production, film and television.
Dr. Janet van Eeden (AFDA Durban Dean): Dr Janet van Eeden has written a significant number of feature-length screenplays, as well as numerous short films, written and produced six stage plays (and directed two) and taken each to the Grahamstown Arts Festival, with funding from the National Arts Council. She writes and script-edits many feature films for the KZN Film Commission, amongst others. She is an educator, screenwriter, playwright, producer, evaluator as well as the Dean of AFDA Durban. One of her significant achievements includes writing a full-length feature film, ‘White Lion’, which was released internationally in cinemas in 2010, and won four SAFTA Awards in its release year. Janet recently published a book, Cut To The Chase, Script Writing for Beginners.
Mark Wilby (AFDA Gqeberha Dean): Mark Wilby has worked in various capacities in the South African film industry since the 1980’s. As a production designer, he has worked on domestic (SABC, MWEB) and foreign (BBC, Channel4, Canal+) television productions, and designed numerous local and international features such as Krakatoa, Red Dust, and Mandela’s Gun. He has twice received the MNET-VITA Award for production design. As a director, two early drama films, Astor Mansions and Half-an-Hour, were award-winners at the Weekly Mail Film Festival. Mark is attracted to the vision of the AFDA campus in Gqeberha – that of establishing itself as the cornerstone of a burgeoning industry in the Eastern Cape.
