Sihle Hlophe

Sihle Hlophe first fell in love with the arts after being involved in her first school play in Grade One. In fact, Hlophe has participated in almost every aspect of the arts but it was only in 2003 when she directed her first play as a 17 year old, that she realized that she was destined to work as a director and a writer in film and television. After matriculating, she pursued a Bachelor of Arts in the Dramatic Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand. In her fourth year, she was selected as a candidate on the North-South Documentary Exchange Program; this afforded her the opportunity to learn more about documentary filmmaking at Arcada Polytech in Helsinki, Finland. During this time, Hlophe was a producer, writer and director for two short award-winning documentaries; “Poison of Choice”, shot in Soweto and “Our House-Meijan Talo”, shot in Helsinki. These documentaries have been screened extensively on platforms such as YLE (Finnish National Broadcaster), Africa Magic, Coal Stove ‘Off the Shelf’ Nights, the Mafikeng Film Festival and the National Arts Festival.

At the age of 21, Hlophe founded Brain Matter Media, a TV production company consisting of emerging female filmmakers. In 2009, Brain Matter Media was commissioned to produce two 48 minute documentaries that were aired on SABC 1 in 2010 for the Human Rights, Back to Democracy strand. Hlophe wrote, directed and edited these two documentaries. Between 2010 and 2011, Brain Matter media worked on numerous projects including four documentaries and a number of corporate videos and music videos. One of the company’s greatest accomplishments has been covering Nana Amissah III of Ghana’s official visit to Swaziland and filming the world renowned Umhlanga/Reed Dance in 2010.

In 2009, Hlophe worked as a script editor and production coordinator at Rainforest Productions. In 2010, the entrepreneurial Hlophe pursued a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management at North West University. She graduated in 2011 and in 2012; she enrolled for her Masters in Communication at the same university.

Following her passion for natural history filmmaking, Hlophe enrolled at the Wildlife Film Academy in 2011, here she directed and shot a 3 minute film about the coming of age of zebras and rhinos.

Hlophe has also had stints as a production assistant, radio film critic, production manager and camera operator.

From 2011 - 2012, Hlophe worked at Francois Odendaal Production