Films worth thinking about. People worth talking to. Monthly.
We screen standout cinema you won’t find elsewhere, then discuss it properly over beer and pizza. Curated by film curator and critic Deniz Sertkol and François Smit—who’ve spent their careers finding films that matter. Not film theory. Just films that deserve your full attention, and conversations with people who give them exactly that. Monthly screenings for members and friends at The Bioscope.
No membership fees, just a passion for film is essential. Join our WhatsApp Broadcast Channel.
SCREENINGS
WED 25 Mar 7pm | March Double Feature : Two People Exchanging Saliva & A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night SOLD OUT!.
WED 29 Apr 7pm | A Dan Sallitt Evening : Fourteen (2019, 94 min) + Caterina (2019, 17 min) BOOK NOW. Two films made in the same year by the same director — and together they form something close to a complete portrait of how we fail each other, and how we keep showing up anyway. Quiet, precise, and surprisingly devastating. Sallitt is one of American independent cinema’s best-kept secrets — not for much longer, if we have anything to do with it.
MORE ON THE LONG TAKE FILM CLUB
Films should linger. Not fade the moment you leave the cinema, but stay with you—shape how you see, connect you to others, awaken something alive in you. Films curated with intention, creating a space for real discussion in a welcoming, inclusive space: This is the Film Club Jo’burg deserves.
House of Shem’s approach to cultural programming is exactly this: reconnecting experiences to their transformative purpose. This is cinema with soul. This is what happens when you remember why films exist.
MORE ON DENIZ SERTKOL
works at the intersection of programming, criticism, and public cinema culture. As a recent Johannesburg transplant, she hopes to create film programs that spark conversations, build community, and foster joyful critique rooted in the love for film as a communal experience. Her career spans over a decade-long engagement with the moving image within institutions such as The Bioscope, the Goethe-Institut (New York and Munich), and the German Film Office New York, as well as festivals including the Berlinale Forum, Filmfest Munich, Berlin Critics’ Week, and True/False Film Fest.
Her curatorial interests centre on gender, identity, and movement across borders, with a focus on short and experimental forms, indie films, and genre cinema—especially horror.
