Storyteller/
Creative Specialist
Palesa Letlaka is an award-winning creative specialist with an extensive background in media production, communication and broadcasting. Her career has encompassed film, documentary, television, animation and commercials, traversing a broad spectrum of narrative formats. Her multi-genre work has received numerous awards and been sold in international markets.
Palesa kicked off her professional career as a publicist at the world-renowned anti-apartheid Market Theater in Johannesburg, igniting her desire to become a social impact storyteller. Her film career began with an opportunity to intern in New York on a Spike Lee film, and she subsequently completed media production training in New York at the acclaimed Third World Newsreel. She later returned to South Africa and became the first Black woman to direct fiction films and commercials. As an internationally award-winning filmmaker in factual and fiction narrative formats, she has extensive experience in conceptualizing, writing, directing, and producing short and long-form documentaries, drama series, fiction films, animation films, commercials, corporate videos and public history multimedia installations which have been broadcast and exhibited in South Africa, the United States Europe, various countries in Africa, China, and Brazil.
She has also led various communications and advocacy multimedia campaigns as a Creative Director inspiring transformative action in societies and shaping public discourse for international NGOs including the United Nations, the UNDP, and loveLife - the largest Youth Health Promotion organization within the Southern African region.
Palesa has worked as a broadcast executive for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC, the largest in Africa), as a Commissioning Editor/ Showrunner and later as the Head of Entertainment. Here, she commissioned and led the development process for a multi-genre programming remit for television series and created content strategies for the network channels. Her programming has won a number of international awards and nominations including International Emmy® nominations and U.S. International TV and Film Festival non-fiction awards. She later became Head of Formats for the network.
Palesa has served on the Jury for the International Emmys® in the Arts Programming and Documentary categories, as a multi-year jurist for the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs) and the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs). She has also served as a multi-year adjudicator for grant-giving panels for both fiction and documentary categories for the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), a South African National Arts Endowment Agency.
Palesa is based in the USA and has worked at the Smithsonian as a Project Manager on The Will to Adorn: The Aesthetics of African American Diversity, Style, and Identity, a multi-year collaborative cultural research project. This multi-site research project was implemented through five partner museums across the USA and integrated their video and photographic research into the Smithsonian Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). Palesa was responsible for the process of the creation of the new digital research collaboration platform which was integrated with the Smithsonian Digital Asset Management system (DAMS). She also managed the bespoke platform development by the internal tech teams and managed the data migration.
Palesa continued with her passions of advocacy, filmmaking, and history as the Campaign Project Manager of Mandela 100, for the Nelson Mandela Foundation -USA, a U.S.-focused advocacy and partnerships initiative of the four official Nelson Mandela legacy organizations. The initiative served to highlight Mandela's global contribution to advancing equality, social justice, and the well-being of children. She was also commissioned as the writer and Producer/Director of Dare To Dream, a feature-length multimedia documentary on Mandela’s legacy vision.
As the Project Manager for the campaign, Palesa also coordinated a gala celebration that showcased international artists and presented a keynote conversation between former President Barack Obama and Graça Machel. https://www.obama.org/updates/celebrating-mandela-100/
Palesa's multi-sector project management background includes experience as an IT project manager.
Palesa holds an MA in History, with a concentration in transitional justice and gender in South Africa, from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS).
Palesa is one of the first women in South Africa to break the silence in the #MeToo movement in the film industry in a public letter to an industry colleague.
https://city-press.news24.com/Voices/palesa-letlakas-open-letter-to-khalo-matabane-20180428
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/south-africa-director-khalo-matabane-accused-rape-sexual-misconduct-1202796638/