MEET THE TEAM
Sydelle Willow Smith (Co-founder and Executive Director)

Sydelle Willow Smith (Co-founder and Executive Director)

sydelle@sunshinecinema.org

Sydelle Willow Smith is a storyteller and co-founder of Sunshine Cinema. She holds a Masters of social science in African studies from the University of Oxford. She is passionate about audience engagement and experimenting with modes of public participation as an artist, researcher and leader. It is within the context of public participation that she has drawn together her interests in media, anthropology and socio-political interventions. Smith is a 2020 Senior Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Columbia University.
Rowan Pybus (Co-founder and Creative Director)

Rowan Pybus (Co-founder and Creative Director)

rowan@makhulu.co.za

Rowan Pybus is an impact campaign specialist. His work for the last 20 years has been focused on social and environmental development. He founded Makhulu Media in 2005 to create film stories that matter and is the co-founder of Sunshine Cinema. In the course of his career he has won awards from the UN Forum on Forests, National Geographic, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and is a Salzburg Global Fellow.
Rene Weston (Director of Programmes)

Rene Weston (Director of Programmes)

rene@sunshinecinema.org

Rene Weston is the programmes director at Sunshine Cinema. She believes in the power of creativity to unite, strengthen and heal. She builds lasting team relationships while trying to balance her super-organised ‘get-things-done-yesterday’ kind of energy with her ‘calm-confident-rock-in-the-stormy-ocean’ dreamer self. Her background is an interesting mix of NGO project management, education management and having the time of her life as Ian Gabriel’s assistant on both the Forgiveness and Four Corners feature films. She is interested in empowering youth to find their voice, training them in skills that will help them confidently unlock powerful and authentic stories.

Nomnotho Gumede (Impact Lead)

Nomnotho Gumede (Impact Lead)

nomnotho@sunshinecinema.org

Nomnotho Gumede is an impact lead at Sunshine Cinema. Her background entails over seven years’ experience of programme evaluations relating to enterprise development, youth and women’s financial education and livelihood development in both the corporate and the NGO space. Nomnotho advocates for social change justice by embedding good governance and accountability through her M&E, to help young NGOs package their impact data and attract investment in their work unlocking human development.
Shanna Freedman (Financial Manager)

Shanna Freedman (Financial Manager)

manager@makhulu.co.za

An award-winning producer, Shanna Freedman brings unflappable competence and a wealth of valuable experience to the table of any production. Organisation is an art form, after all, and Shanna is a creative master of her craft. Able to stretch a budget, handle logistics, effortlessly put people at ease, manage a team of brilliant individuals and provide creative input, it’s the reward that pushes her to aim for perfection.
Nontokozo Sibanyoni (Media Coordinator)

Nontokozo Sibanyoni (Media Coordinator)

nonto@sunshinecinema.org

Nontokozo Sibanyoni is a Spark Impact Sunshine Cinema alumni. She is a podcast editor, media coordinator and she contributes to the overall running of the ambassador programme at Sunshine Cinema. She is a marketing graduate with a passion for digital marketing and she finds it essential for the youth to equip themselves with digital marketing skills since media is constantly evolving and this creates room for income opportunities.

Ayanda Kondlo (Programmes Coordinator)

Ayanda Kondlo (Programmes Coordinator)

ayanda@sunshinecinema.org

Ayanda Kondlo is a diligent, ambitious and goal-oriented young man, who believes in making change to better the lives of others, mainly that of young people. Kondlo has experience working in education and community development and holds a Bachelor’s of Arts degree majoring in psychology from the University of Western Cape. He believes that the tech space is constantly evolving, creating many opportunities for young people's development. In his role as youth coordinator, he is looking forward to leading youth, supporting the Spark Impact ambassador programme.
Pretty Nxumalo (Zimbabwe Project Manager)

Pretty Nxumalo (Zimbabwe Project Manager)

nobuhle@sunshinecinema.org

Pretty Nxumalo holds a Masters in journalism and media studies and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in language and communications studies. She has worked with various non-profit organisations to bring about social change through access to information and women and youth empowerment. She believes that access to reliable information is essential for effective citizen participation in public life. She is enthusiastic about research, women empowerment and development communication.

Meet the Board Members

Hlubi Mboya-Arnold

Hlubi Mboya-Arnold

Hlubi Mboya-Arnold is an award-winning TV and film actor, athlete, social justice activist, philanthropist, social entrepreneur, educator and reading for her MBA at Henley Business School. She currently is an executive director at Future CEOs and non-executive director at the Mandela Education Programme.

Mbali Ntuli

Mbali Ntuli

Mbali Ntuli is a creative writer, theatre practitioner, researcher and a 2021 Spark Impact alumni at Sunshine Cinema. She studied performing arts and arts administration at Sibikwa Arts Centre and Film and Television production at KZN film commission. She is a social activist and co-founder at Blossom Adventures Arts Creations (BLAAC), based in rural Kwazulu-Natal, which is an NPC that advocates for arts education for young pupils in rural areas.

Faith Pienaar

Faith Pienaar

Faith Pienaar is from Johannesburg and has worked to build a number of youth-led social movements centering the use of creative approaches such as film, photography and illustration for positive social change. She is interested in institutional reform as it relates to governance, and is currently completing a Masters in organisational and institutional studies at Wits with the Public Affairs Research Institute. With over five years of professional and volunteer experience in South Africa, Malaysia and the United States, Faith brings expertise in programme development and implementation, communications, campaign building, research and strategic advisory services. Faith currently works as a researcher and project manager at the Mcebisi Jonas Centre for Change.

Stephanie Bousheri

Stephanie Bousheri

Stephanie Bousheri is a San Francisco-based accomplished entrepreneurial leader and UC Davis and UCSF trained clinician scientist with global experience spanning patient care, clinical research, product strategy, commercialisation and business development. Throughout her career she has focused on ways to use technology and the idea of scale to innovate, uplift, educate and help others. From working as a nurse; to taking the first therapeutic HIV vaccine to Africa; to operating as a GM at an ed-tech company. Over the course of her career she has worked with both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups to bring novel solutions to market and drive company growth. In her free time she gives back by serving on several boards and advising early stage companies.

Vincent Manzini

Vincent Manzini

Vincent Manzini, also known as Sir Vincent, is a DJ, producer, social entrepreneur, speaker and a culture activist whose mission has always been to shine a bright light on where he comes from and its people. Vincent founded the first DJ academy in Khayelitsha called Jump Start Music Academy, which sought to open up the music industry to kids who do not have the resources and access. With more than 15 years’ experience in marketing, Vincent is the co-founder and director of Blank Kanvas, which is credited with securing sponsorships for various platforms in the past two years.

Dylan Valley

Dylan Valley

Dylan Valley is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a media scholar who views film as a liberatory tool. Valley has done work on revisiting the history of Afrikaans, reframing it as a creole language (Afrikaaps) and has documented urgent responses to police brutality (The Uprising of Hangberg). Prior to joining UCT as a lecturer, Valley worked in the Film and Television Department at the Wits School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). In 2013 Dylan received a Pulitzer fellowship from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, where he received his master’s in specialised journalism. In January 2020, his virtual reality documentary Azibuye – The Occupation premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance. Azibuye is Valley’s first virtual reality project and he is planning to do more work in this field, both in research and practice.