Gaborone, Botswana · Working across Southern Africa
Stories that stay after the camera leaves.
I am Shatho Tibone — a passionate and dedicated storyteller, driven by the power of film to amplify voices, challenge perceptions, and fostering understanding. As a Motswana filmmaker I have spent 12 years working as a producer, director, videographer, location sound engineer and editor telling stories rooted in social justice, identity, culture and community. From the Cape Flats in South Africa to the Kalahari in Botswana, where I have lived alongside the communities I document and transformed lived experiences into powerful visual stories.
and shooting
Botswana · South Africa · Mozambique
on gender-based violence
screening programmes
Showreel One
Two minutes of the last decade.
Feature documentary · Five years in the making
I'm Khoisan, Not Coloured
Self-funded and shot over five years in Hangberg, Cape Town, the film sits with a community fighting for the right to name itself. Identity, dispossession, police violence and belonging, told by the people living it rather than about them.
Since release it has been screened and debated at universities across Southern Africa, and has become teaching material in anthropology, psychology and decolonial studies.
Selected work
Commissioned, independent, and everything between.
Botswana's GBV Pandemic
A nationwide documentary series on gender-based violence, filmed across thirteen rural and urban communities and broadcast nationally.
Kalahari field work
Long-form documentation with indigenous communities in the Kalahari region, built on repeat visits and consent rather than a single shooting block.
Botswana's Metal Heads
The Marockos, Botswana's heavy metal subculture, for the New York digital platform OkayAfrica. Director, videographer and editor.
Practice
Storytelling that is connected to action.
I do not approach documentary as observation. The work is built on field immersion, trust and long-term relationships, so that what gets filmed translates into visibility, dignity and institutional attention.
That has meant training young people in under-resourced communities, partnering with NGOs and advocacy organisations, and staying with a story long after the commission has closed.
Media practitioners have a responsibility to contribute meaningfully to social transformation beyond the screen.Shatho Tibone
What I do
A full production spine in one pair of hands.
Trained as a sound engineer before film school, I can carry a project from first conversation to final delivery, or slot into a larger crew in a single role.
Documentary
Development, direction and long-form field production. Research, access, consent and story structure.
Cinematography
Owner-operator camera work for documentary, commercial and corporate briefs, indoors and deep in the field.
Commercial & corporate
Television commercials, brand films and social impact campaigns delivered inside structured client systems.
Sound & post
Location sound, sound design and edit. A diploma in sound engineering underneath every picture cut.
Commissioned by, screened at, and made with
- FNB Botswana Foundation
- Old Mutual
- OkayAfrica
- Natural Justice
- Just Detention International
- University of Cape Town
- Nelson Mandela University
- Stellenbosch University
- National Arts Festival
- AIDC
- TBWA
- UNISA
Next
Let's talk about what you need made.
Commissions, co-productions, crew roles and staff positions with organisations working in social development. Based in Gaborone, travelling across the region and beyond.