About Sreen List

Screen List is a community supported database of information relating to South African films, the companies and people who make them. I, Alex Kokobane, created it with the intention of bridging the information gap within the local film industry. I made it for anyone interested in knowing a little bit more about our cinema, whether they are looking to see what is the latest out there or curious to read about forgotten classics. Every few months there are countless films released through cinemas, streaming video on demand platforms and film festivals but not many are ever heard of again and the information is spotty at best due to little media coverage. Screen List’s sole purpose is to make more information about more films freely available to the public, forever.

Origins

I can recall a time in the mid 2010s when I used to frequent a Wikipedia page titled, The Year In Film, which at the time contained a list of films to be released in a particular year. However, as you can imagine, the list was homogenous with mostly American and British productions. One issue that became clear was how celebrated the productions from the aforementioned countries were. All over the Internet, sites made with the implicit purpose of celebrating all of cinema end up serving the interests of a few dominant markets. Meanwhile information about the South African film industry remains fragmented and difficult to access. As a cinephile myself, one of the most fun parts of following cinema is the anticipation of what future titles may bring and the speculations that exist leading up to a film’s release date - a missing element in the South African fan culture’s relationship to South African cinema. I saw it necessary to create a platform to change all of that.

Utilty

Screen List can be used to access a variety of information pertaining films, production and distribution studios, actors and filmmakers. South African (including international co-productions) documentary, fiction or animation feature or short films can be added to the platform. Although some platform features are yet to be implemented, the ultimate goal is for users to be able to granularly filter through all kinds of scenarios to find a list of films that interests them. For instance, in the future if one wants to know which films produced by Eastern Cape based companies are in post-production they will be able to find an exact list of their query. Currently there’s no way to find this information readily available and as such, Screen List is going to be the place to be for researchers, normal film watchers looking to find something new, cinephiles and film professionals alike.

I hope you like it here and let us document history together.