Over the past few weeks, I’ve been in what can only be described as the most intense season of paperwork and proposals of my creative life.
While I’m still waiting for final invoices from five different production companies to get ThisAbility into pre-production, I pursued as many funding and professional opportunities as possible. In total, I submitted 20 applications, spanning bursaries, awards, funding calls, residencies, job opportunities, and festival pitches:
🎓 Bursaries for Master’s studies in creative writing or film studies – locally and internationally (SACO Scholarship, NAC Scholarship, NFVF funding, NRF funding, Fulbright Scholarship)
🏆 Award nominations and entries – with my mom kindly nominating me for Mail & Guardian’s Power of Women, The Herald’s Citizens of the Year, Sunday World’s Heroic Women, Forty Under 40, Artisans of Mzansi 2025, and Santam Women of the Future
✍️ A devotional writer job opportunity – at The Daily Grace Co., blending my faith and writing
🏠 Residency application – to the Jakes Gerwell Foundation, the Longhope TV Writing programme for emerging television screenwriters
🎭 Theatre project funding – via the NAC Annual Project Fund and two productions submitted for the KKNK Festival
📝 Workshop & exhibition funding – The African Arts Trust
🎤 Speaking & panel opportunities – Eastern Cape Film Expo (on disability representation in film), KKNK festival discussions & SACO Convention talk based on my Honours research thesis
📚 An essay submission – to Ons Klyntji, adapting my Hope Prize essay
🎬 A feature film pitch – submitted to MIP Africa, to hopefully secure a platform at the FAME expo in Cape Town
📽️ A documentary film proposal – submitted to the Sundance Documentary Film Fund
It’s been a marathon of budget plans, script samples, motivational letters, and proposal documents. Now that everything is in, I’m exhaling deeply and shifting my focus back to ThisAbility.
I’m hoping to receive all final production crew invoices before the end of this week so I can make decisions and move forward with clarity.
Thank you to everyone who has supported, encouraged, and cheered me on during this whirlwind.
🌿 Onward to the next chapter!
