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.

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.

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 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 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 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, 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 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.