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Festival Poster by Jacob Mauk

Visiting artist

Mmakgosi Anita Tau

Mmakgosi Anita Tau

Bio

Mmakgosi Anita Tau is a writer and award-winning filmmaker from Botswana based in the
USA. Tau was born in Botswana in 1989 and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film from Syracuse
University. She completed her undergraduate studies in motion picture medium at AFDA
Botswana and also studied journalism, international relations, and criminology at the University
of Monash South Africa. Tau founded Mmakgosi Live, a project she undertook in Botswana,
Ghana, and later the US, that uses poetry, art, film, dance, and theater to de-stigmatize mental
illness and inspire artists to connect. She is a recipient of the British Council/Prince Claus
Mobility Fund and was selected by the United States Department of State for the University of
Iowa International Writing Program, Women’s Creative Mentorship Program. Tau is a Headlands
Center for the Arts Artist in Residence 2023 as well as a recipient of The Donald and Genie Rice
Residency – Yaddo Artist in Residence. She is also a recipient of two Creative Opportunity
Grants and the Bryan Buckley Award for her short films. Tau was selected by the United States
Department of State for the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a flagship program of the Young
African Leaders Initiative, Drexel University, USA.

Tau works in both fiction film and documentary and has made films in Botswana, Ethiopia, the
US, and Zambia. She uses cinema to make films that uncover the Motswana woman in
mainstream media and protest human rights violations and societal injustices. Her short film
credits include Red, Pink and Black (2023), For Them That Prey (2023), Beneath These Walls
(2022), Section 82 (2019), The Secret (2020), Moribo (2018), Amme Re Tla Lala Re Nyalane Ka
Nako (2017), and Aphala (2017). Her television series credits for script writing include Bokgoba
Ba Golegilwe (2018), Botshelo Jo (2021), and Colours (2017). She produced, shot, and directed
Sojourner (2023), a meditative experimental piece. She is currently writing her memoir, doing
research for her first feature length project and completing post-production on a short film titled
Red, Pink, and Black (2023). Her films have screened in Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe,
Turkey, Canada, Cameroon, and the United States. She is also a published poet, has conducted
community workshops on poetry and mental health, and as part of her MFA program taught

introductory filmmaking and scriptwriting. Her poetry, essays and flash fiction have been
published in the University of Iowa’s Women’s Creative Mentorship Project Anthology, Brittle
Paper, Water Stone Review, Kalahari Review, Drum Magazine and others. Tau is currently
teaching Screenwriting, Filmmaking Concepts, and Multimedia Storytelling in Digital Platforms
at The College of Visual and Performing Arts as well as S.I Newhouse School of
Communications.

 

Film publicity stills