Francois Verster is an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker based in Cape Town, South Africa.  His films generally follow creative and observational approaches to social issues and have all won local and international awards – these include THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD (2014), SEA POINT DAYS (2009), THE MOTHERS’ HOUSE (2006), A LION’S TRAIL (2002) and WHEN THE WAR IS OVER (2002).  Recently he produced, filmed and edited Shameela Seedat’s WHISPERING TRUTH TO POWER (2018) which won the Special Jury prize at Hot Docs, and co-directed SCENES FROM A DRY CITY, which premiered in competition at IDFA 2018.

Verster has taught documentary or held fellowships at Columbia U, New York U, U of Cape Town, U of the Witwatersrand and elsewhere, and has published on documentary in various journals and anthologies.  He currently teaches a postgraduate course in creative documentary at the U of the Western Cape. He has appeared on various festival juries and has had nine local or international festival retrospectives or special focus series on his work, most recently at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, France.