NEWF - Nature Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers

Home
South Africa
Durban
NEWF - Nature Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers

What started out as an annual Congress has grown to become an all-year impact and outreach organisation.

Through an integrated slate of programs, we inspire and incubate emerging science, nature, wildlife and conservation storytellers in Africa.

09/06/2026

🎉 What a day! Join us in celebrating Silindile “Mama Sli” Mbuyazi… That’s right, she’s been named a 2026 National Geographic Wayfinder!

We are so immensely proud of Sli! From the day we met her, we knew she was a force of nature! Not only for her skill and leadership, but for the warmth, strength, and generosity she brings into every space she enters.

Through her work, Sli has trained more than 150 divers and opened pathways for storytellers and scientists and young people from her community to engage with the ocean. But her impact goes far beyond numbers. She has inspired every NEWF Fellow who has crossed her path, showing what it means to lead with courage, care, humility, and purpose.

To see Mama Sli join a global community of National Geographic Explorers is a powerful and deeply deserved recognition of her outstanding leadership in conservation, storytelling, and community-rooted change. The 2026 National Geographic Wayfinder Award is presented by Kia.

Congratulations, Mama Sli. We could not be prouder! 🥹

🔗 Read more here: https://news.nationalgeographic.org/national-geographic-society-honors-15-bold-changemakers-with-2026-wayfinder-award-presented-by-kia/

📸 Anthony Ochieng Onyango
National Geographic Society

08/05/2026

✨E·CO/26 - ABOUT TIME is a collaborative process that supports the construction of new visual narratives.

Through this OPEN CALL we are looking for groups or collectives who are ready to envision new futures for their communities through interdisciplinary creative expression.

How does your community understand and narrate time?

Through this collaboration, we aim to support stories that explore ancestral knowledge as a blueprint for where we are going.

Whether your collective is Africa-only or collaborating across regions with Ibero-America, we want to see how you use visual storytelling to rethink our collective journey.

‼️Submit your proposal by 10 May!
🔗 Find out more and Apply here: eco.vistprojects.com/en/
🌐 Apply in English, Portuguese, French or Spanish

📸 Images by Imagine the Fire of Memory Cohort 2025

06/05/2026

📣 OPEN CALL for visual artists, researchers, and creatives across Africa and Latin America!

The deadline is closing in on applications for E·CO/26: About Time.

This year’s theme challenges collectives to think about the relationship between the past, the present, and the future in our communities.

From revisiting histories and memory to engaging ancestral knowledge and imagining new futures, we want to see how you narrate time and its connection to territory.

💶 Selected projects will receive a €5,000 production grant, mentorship, and a seat at the table for a collaborative process of reflection and development.

🏡This journey culminates in a physical encounter at eKhaya (Sodwana Bay) in late 2026.

‼️ Deadline: 10 May 2026

🔗 Apply here: eco.vistprojects.com/en/

🌐 Apply in English, Portuguese, French or Spanish

30/01/2026

In the short film Eliphephile, Nombuso, a young woman from Sodwana Bay, South Africa, reflects on identity, belonging and her community, which mirrors the ocean's resilient spirit.

This narrative is the result of the NEWF - Nature Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers and Santiago Wild "South to South" collaboration featuring fifteen filmmakers from Africa and Latin America.

Founded by Noel Kok and Pragna Parsotam-Kok, NEWF was created to ensure Africa’s stories are told by African voices. Through the Africa Refocused program, supported by the National Geographic Society, they continue to elevate African storytellers and scientists and support local community members like Nombuso, who is now a qualified Divemaster, encouraging other young people in her community to get involved in marine conservation.

View the full film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJIjteR2IQs.

12/11/2025

🕊️ It is with deep sadness that we mourn the loss of our friend and industry peer, Aika Kirei. A calm, humble and passionate storyteller; Aika was not only a NEWF Dive and ACVPL fellow, but represented Tanzania and Africa as a National Geographic Explorer.

🌍 An award-winning writer, animator and filmmaker whose life started and ended in Tanzania, we honour her legacy as we reflect on a career deeply inspired by her belief in the power of access, education, curiosity, media and African representation to birth new agency, change behaviour and create a sense of belonging, custodianship and pride now and into the future.

❤️ As she joins the great lakes of Tanzania in being lost too soon, we remember how nearly they were forgotten were it not for her speaking their names and sharing what is known about them. So too we will remember her and keep her name and passion alive in rooms and along shores spanning Africa and the world.

🤝 Our community extends our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, colleagues and all the loved ones who are grieving this unimaginable loss.

🕊️ Rest in peace, Aika. May your spirit and love for storytelling live on through Chiku, Katope and all the children and adults who have been moved by your work.

06/10/2025

📣 What a week at this years 🏔️

showed up with a community of Fellows, our music, our stories, and our spirit.

From packed panels to Muha & Labdi lighting up the stage, to sharing hope and positivity in every space we entered, it truly felt like we were part of the heartbeat of the Summit.

🌍 Our presence was amplified through our collaborations with Santiago Wild and reminding us how powerful alliances can be.

The Jackson Wild Summit has been such an important catalyst for our growth, and we’re proud and honored to give back to a community that the world of nature and wildlife storytelling needs now more than ever.

Grateful, proud, inspired, and excited for what’s next! 🎉

25/09/2025

📣 MEET THE FELLOWS ✨ Here they are - the selected fellows for the inaugural NEWF ! 🎮 Fellows will team up and co-create playable prototypes about the natural world that inspire action for our planet in 6 days! The gaming world calls this a Game Jam 👾

Thank you to facilitators and mentors Gautam Shah and Jake Manion!

Read more about the Lab & Fellows 🔗 https://www.newf.co.za/meet-the-fellows/game-jam

24/09/2025

🌊 On Heritage Day, we celebrate not only the traditions of the past, but the custodianship of the future.

In Sodwana Bay, Nkosikhona Mthembu and Silindile Mbuyazi are setting local divers on a new, more inclusive path to the ocean. Mentoring young divers, breaking barriers, and reclaiming a place for their community in the sea through their roles as NEWF’s dive instructors and custodians of eKhaya Storytelling, Research and Dive Centre.

Sli’s first long-term mentee Nkosi has spread his wings to leave a personal legacy of exploration, custodianship and living heritage right where he lives. His journey from uncertainty, to confidence is one that has inspired local youth to dream bigger than limitations imposed on him.

🌍 This is living heritage.
💙 This is custodianship.

Read the full story here 🔗 https://www.newf.co.za/story-arc/2025-09-24/a-living-local-heritage-of-exploration-and-custodianship-with-nkosi-mthembu

📸Photos by:
1.
2. Dercio Muha Gomate
3. Samuel Gichuru /

22/09/2025

🦏 Rhino conservation storytelling isn’t just about protecting animals, it’s about the grit, precision, and responsibility carried by those behind the lens.

For filmmaker Nathan Rice, filming “Wild Hope - Rhino Ops” meant sunrise-to-sunset days with no retakes: “If you missed it, you missed it.” The pressure was immense, but so was the trust. It was a moment that transformed him into a storyteller who carries both human and wildlife stories with equal care.

This , we are reminded that conservation isn’t abstract. It’s local. It’s lived. And it’s told through the people closest to the ground, filmmakers, rangers, communities, and scientists who witness the stakes first-hand. Their stories make the fight for rhinos real, urgent, and human.

🌍Through Nathan’s journey, we see how local voices shape global understanding. Storytelling from Africa, in Africa’s own voice, ensures the narrative of rhino survival is not only preserved, it is rooted where it matters most.

🔗 Read Nathan’s full story → https://www.newf.co.za/story-arc/2025-09-22/seeing-beyond-with-nathan-rice
🎞️ Wild Hope - Rhino Ops premieres 6 Oct 2025

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Scientific Services

29/08/2025

📣 MEET THE FELLOWS ✨ The Power of Perspective Photography Lab - a collaboration with VIST Projects! During the Lab fellows have opened space for reflection, discussion and debate…and using all the senses, collaboratively and individually exploring the building of contemporary visual narratives and the editing processes of their images!

Thank you to facilitators & mentors Claudi Carreras, Marta Nin i camps, Andrés Cardona and Jorge Panchoaga!

Read more about the Lab 🔗 https://www.newf.co.za/meet-the-fellows/the-power-of-perspectives

Address

Africa
Durban

Website

http://www.newf.co.za/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when NEWF - Nature Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Durban?