about
BIOGRAPHY

Milisuthando Bongela-Davis (b.1985, South Africa) is an award-winning WRITER, FILMMAKER, CULTURAL WORKER and ARTIST. Her career began in the fashion industry, culminating in her co-owning South African designer store MEMEME Johannesburg, trend consulting for retailer WOOLWORTHS and publishing fashion and culture blog missmillib.com until 2018. The last 16 years have seen her traverse the worlds of music, art, media and film - continually turning towards indigenous knowledge systems. 

She was Arts Editor for the Mail & Guardian's Friday section and was host and co-producer of the podcast Umoya: On African Spirituality with Dr. Athambile Masola. 

Her latest work is a personal essay documentary titled MILISUTHANDO had its in competition world premier at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and selected for MoMA’s New Directors / New Films programme 2023 before opening the 2023 Encounters Documentary Film Festival among many other festivals around the world. It was nominated and won awards for its groundbreaking form, subject matter and approach to personal filmmaking. 

She is an inaugural fellow of the 2020 Adobe Women at Sundance Fellowship and is currently working on her second film with collaborator Hankyeol Lee and musician DAPHNE ZAR is an experimental silent film commissioned by Neo Muyanga for William Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg.

She lives in Harlem, New York with her husband Warren.