AFRICA ENGAGE DELEGATES 2026
Juliana Kabua
Producer, Kenya, Great Lakes Creative Producer’s Lab & LBx Africa
Juliana Kabua is a Nairobi-based film producer with over a decade of experience in filmmaking. Her work spans both documentary and fiction and is currently developing two feature fiction films and a feature documentary.
Zoe Ramushu
Producer, South Africa/Zimbabwe, STEPS & Chiriseri Studios
Zoe Ramushu is a producer with a legal background. She is currently producing the documentary collection, Generation Africa 2.0 focused on Climate Change, for STEPS alongside Don Edkins.
Katya Aragão
Filmmaker, São Tomé e Príncipe, Tela Digital
Katya Aragão is a filmmaker from São Tomé and Príncipe, passionate about telling stories that amplify African and São Toméan voices. She is currently developing a short fiction and a feature documentary.
Akuol De Mabior
Filmmaker, South Sudan, APO Media
Akuol De Mabior is an articulate and thoughtful storyteller with over 7 years of experience crafting award-winning documentaries across Africa. She has just been doing a new series on Al Jazeera called ‘Africa’s New Directions.
Babucarr Manka
Screenwriter & director, The Gambia, State of Mic
Babucarr Manka is a Gambian documentary filmmaker and journalism student. He has recently premiered a short documentary, ‘Gods of the Sea’ - about the dangerous rituals of fishermen as they fight off European fishing vessels.
NOTE: Unfortunately Babucarr Manka has faced visa challenges and is not able to make it to CPH:DOX 2026. We will miss him!
Hind Bensari
Filmmaker, Morocco
Hind Bensari is a self-taught filmmaker known for combining visual storytelling with strong social impact. Her new documentary, Out of School, will premiere in competition at CPH:DOX 2026. Hind is the commissioning editor for documentaries at TV 2M and teaches documentary filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts (ESAV) in Marrakech.
Read more…
Hatibu Madudu
Scriptwriter & creative coordinator, Tanzania, Film Lab Zanzibar & Zanzibar International Film Festival
Hatibu Madudu is an award winning filmmaker, the festival director for Zanzibar International Film Festival and Film Lab Zanzibar Programmer. As a filmmaker, he is always moved to tell stories with social impact. And he has served multiple jury panels.
LEADERS OF THE DELEGATION
Charlotte Giese
Head of The Africa Engage Program,
Co-founder of Film Lab Zanzibar,
International Consultant / Partner Programs
Charlotte Giese is an international film consultant. Following a year-long career at the Danish Film Institute, she has since 2020 run her own consultancy with a focus on international film collaboration. She has been involved in the strategic foundation of Film Lab Zanzibar, Film Lab Palestine, the TanzAnimation program and the Africa Engage program (during CPH:DOX), as well as in a number of film training labs and festival events through partnerships in East Africa and the Middle East.
E-mail: charlottegiese1@gmail.com
Tel.: +45 23 32 90 30
Don Edkins
Partner in Africa Engage, filmmaker & producer, STEPS
Don Edkins is a South African documentary filmmaker and producer based in Cape Town, co-founder of the non-profit media organization STEPS in 2001. Currently he is developing Generation Africa 2.0, a documentary film project for African filmmakers on climate change and environmental justice, with 30 films in development from 21 countries across the continent. He is Executive Producer of AfriDocs, a free-to-view VOD platform across Africa that screens the best African documentary films, and is co-author of Steps by Steps, a book on documentary filmmaking.
E-mail: don@steps.co.za