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Bio

Julia Cain (DPhil), is a lecturer in the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, where she works primarily with screen production students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and convenes the honours Film Theory & Practice programme, which is documentary focused. Julia is passionate about participatory and documentary film, co-creation, teaching and learning and developing South African creatives. Her students’ films have screened at festivals nationally and internationally and won various awards. She believes in the power of film to provide perspectives from the Global South and to be a tool for social change. She also has a deep concern with ethics in creative practice and serves on the UCT Humanities Faculty’s Research Ethics Committee. As part of her professional and social responsibility activities based at UCT, Julia is a member of South Africa’s Documentary Filmmakers’ Association (DFA); facilitates support and provides inputs to Cape Town’s Free Film School initiative; is an avid supporter of the Encounters Documentary Film Festival; and has hosted the South African version of the traveling African World Documentary Film Festival. Born in Canada, Julia studied international relations and film production before moving to South Africa in 1995. Prior to becoming an academic, she had her own small communications company and then a production company that specialised in educational video. Her PhD focused on using film and video as tools for social change.