| WEDNESDAY |
FRAMING AFRICA REFOCUSED
6:15 am - 7:00am
MORNING YOGA
7:00am - 9:00am
breakfast
what does the future of africa refocused look like?
9:00am - 11:00am
This opening session sets the tone for the summit by reflecting on the first phase of NEWF and Africa Refocused and naming the strategic questions shaping its next chapter. Looking back at the past five years as a period of experimentation, growth and proof of concept, Noel and Pragna invite fellows, mentors and partners into a broader conversation about structure, sustainability, support, and what Africa Refocused may be becoming in the years ahead.
14:00pm - 15:30pm
break
11:00am - 11:30am
why must africa refocused protect, evolve, or build next?
11:30am - 13:00pm
A conversation responding to the opening framing session: This discussion invites fellows and mentors to reflect on what has mattered most, what should be protected as Africa Refocused grows, where it should evolve more boldly, and what kinds of systems, opportunities and support structures still need to be built.
LUNCH
13:00pm - 14:00pm
photography, community & sustainable
storytelling | featring the launch of “It’s about time”
|CLAUDI CARRERAS, JORGE PANCHOAGA & ANDRES CARDONA
This session explores how photographers and visual storytellers can build sustainable models beyond traditional editorial commissions and shrinking assignment pathways. Through the practices of Claudi Carreras, Jorge Panchoaga and Andres Cardona, the conversation looks at exhibitions, collective practice, community-rooted storytelling, rights, grants, alternative funding structures and long-term value creation. It also serves as the launch of E.CO “It’s About Time,” opening a wider conversation about memory, territory, time and future-facing visual narratives.
game drive
15:30pm - 19:00pm
dinner & WELCOME BY MA’M GCINA
19:00pm
| thursDAY |
UNDERSTANDING THE INDUSTRY
9:00am - 10:15am
breakfast
A community-facing screening that connects the summit to local audiences and younger viewers. This session foregrounds film awareness, inspiration, and the importance of growing cultural access to storytelling and film.
12:00Pm - 13:00Pm
18:30pm
game drive
6:00 am - 9:00am
HLUHLUWE SCHOOL GROUP SCREENING & MA’M GCINA UNDER THE STORYTELLING TREE
10:15am - 12:00Pm
NATURE’S DIGITAL APPROACH: DISTRIbUTION, PLATFORMS & THE DIGITAL SHIFT
| digital FIRST REALITIES, PLATFORM THINKING, DISTRIBUTION SHIFTS, SHORT-FORM TO LONG-FORM PATHWAYS.
|DANIELLE BROZA
This session explores how the documentary and factual storytelling landscape is shifting across digital platforms, broadcasters and emerging distribution models. Focusing on digital-first realities, Danielle looks at PBS Nature as an example of the digital approach.
14:00Pm - 15:30Pm
lunch
13:00Pm - 14:00Pm
BREAKING IN, STAYING IN: stringing, assisting & freelance survival
| a standalone career session on real working pathways, assistant roles, freelance survival, career stability and income
| KAITLIN YARNALL
This session focuses on the real roles that often shape careers in the industry: stringing, freelance assignments, assistant positions, and other “less than ideal” opportunities that still build skill, trust, relationships and momentum. Importantly, these roles are framed not only as ways to break into the industry, but also as part of a stable and resilient career structure that can provide income and continuity between larger projects.
16:00pm - 17:30pm
break
15:30am - 16:00am
GLOBAL STORYTELLING PATHWAYS: INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, expectations & opportunity
| a personal discussion of individual career journeys.
| VANESSA SERRAO, GEOFF LUCK & DANIELLE BROZA
This session explores how industry professionals Vanessa, Geoff and Danielle have navigated their personal career journeys, leading them to where they are now. Through personal reflection and industry experience, the discussion looks at the practical realities of working across local and global storytelling ecosystems, and the different pathways, decisions and opportunities that shape a career over time.
reflection of the day
17:30pm - 18:00pm
A short closing reflection designed to help fellows and guests process the day’s conversations, identify key themes, and connect industry insights back to their own career journeys, ambitions and questions.
BUSH DINNER (18:45 DEPARTURE FROM FOUNDERS LODGE)
| friDAY |
BUILDING THE PRACTICE
7:00am - 8:30am
breakfast
11:00am - 12:15pm
12:30pm - 13:00pm
morning yoga ( at safari lodge)
6:15 am - 7:00am
| image-making, visual intention, storytelling through craft & technical choice
cinematography & visual language
8:30am - 9:15am
This session focuses on the role of cinematography in shaping emotion, perspective and narrative meaning. It explores how cinematography sits at the intersection of technical skill, visual intention, budget, and creative decision-making, and asks how filmmakers build a stronger visual language rooted in both craft and authorship.
| VANESSA SERRAO, GEOFF LUCK & DANIELLE BROZA
| Colour grading, workflow, post-production authorship, suite building, technical literacy.
Craft, Control & the Image
9:15am - 10:00am
| CHRISTIAN DIMITRI, DANIEL VENTURINI
This session explores colour grading as both a technical discipline and a creative site of authorship. Moving from workflow and monitoring to suite-building and collaboration, it aims to demystify post-production while building stronger shared language around image finishing, technical decision-making and the role of colour in storytelling.
10:15am - 11:00am
Ai, Immersive & New Formats
|Ownership, archives, training data, future risks and opportunities.
| PRAKASH MATADA, ERIC GARDINER, FRANK BULUMA
A future-facing session exploring how AI, immersive media and gaming as emerging formats are beginning to reshape the storytelling landscape. The discussion addresses questions of ownership, ethics, training data, creative opportunity and risk, while asking how African storytellers can engage these shifts with greater literacy, strategic awareness and opportunity.
Beyond Technique: Language, Standards & Creative Freedom
|A conversation on craft, standards and creative choice.
This session explores the tension between technical literacy, artistic freedom and professional standards in contemporary filmmaking. It asks whether storytellers need a stronger shared technical language across roles, how standards can support rather than restrict creativity, and what it really means to know the rules well enough to break them with intention. The discussion also examines the difference between deliberate experimentation and using “creative freedom” as an excuse for weak craft, inviting a more honest conversation about excellence, authorship and practice.
12:15pm - 12:30pm
break
BIDS, PROJECT SCOPES & BUDGETS
| VANESSA SERRAO
|intro
An introductory session on how projects are framed, costed and communicated professionally. Vanessa sets out the fundamentals of scopes of work, budgeting logic and bid thinking, giving fellows a practical foundation for approaching projects with more clarity, confidence and industry readiness.
14:00pm - 15:30pm
break
10:00am - 10:15am
lunch
13:00pm - 14:00pm
BIDS, PROJECT SCOPES & BUDGETS
| VANESSA SERRAO
|interactive workshop
A hands-on working session that builds on the introduction to bids, budgets and scopes. Fellows engage directly with the practicalities of project planning, pricing, expectation-setting and translating creative ambitions into workable production structures.
game drive
15:30pm - 19:00pm
dinner & dinner & FELLOWS SPOTLIGHT
19:00pm
A featured evening showcase highlighting selected fellows and their work. Positioned as a celebratory but thoughtful spotlight, this session creates visibility for fellows while reinforcing the breadth of voices, practices and emerging directions within the Africa Refocused community.
| saturDAY |
building the future
9:00am - 10:30am
breakfast
This session explores alternative approaches to funding and support beyond one-off grants and conventional commissioning. Geoff looks at partnership models, brand-aligned storytelling, audience-facing ecosystems and other non-traditional pathways that may help storytellers and organisations think more broadly about long-term sustainability.
12:00Pm - 13:00Pm
18:30pm
game drive
6:00 am - 9:00am
non traditional funding pathways
10:30am - 12:00Pm
|geoff luck
FELLOW-LED LABS, RESIDENCIES & EXPANSION PATHWAYS
|HOW AFRICAREFOCUSED CAN SUPPORT FELLOWS-LED INITIATIVES, REGIONAL LABS & COLLABORATIONS
|DANIELLE BROZA
A working session on how Africa Refocused might support fellow-led initiatives, local and regional labs, residencies and collaborative growth models in the future. The conversation considers how expansion can happen in ways that are generous, structured and sustainable.
14:00Pm - 15:30Pm
16:00pm - 18:00pm
lunch
13:00Pm - 14:00Pm
african audiences, platforms & collection distribution
| how do we build african audiences, platform strategy, broadcaster relationships, and collective distribution thinking?
This session focuses on one of the summit’s most important future-facing questions: how to grow African audiences for nature, environment and wildlife storytelling. It explores broadcaster relationships, platform strategy, collective distribution thinking and whether Africa Refocused has a role to play in shaping more intentional audience pathways across the continent.
break
15:30am - 16:00am
what happens next?
The closing session returns to the questions raised at the beginning of the summit and reflects on what has emerged over the four days. It is designed to gather key insights, identify the strongest proposals and tensions, and begin shaping the bridge between summit conversation and post-summit strategic decision-making.