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WAT WAS HIE? unfolds across the landscapes of the Cape, where land, water, and memory bear witness to what history has tried to bury.
Retracing entangled histories of Dutch colonialism, Indigenous erasure, resistance, and slavery, the film moves through sites once inhabited and stewarded by San and Khoe communities, revealing how these histories remain inscribed in the terrain. Suppressed histories resurface as living presence through embodied re-enactment, movement, poetic reflection, and by drawing from stories of Krotoa, slave registers, and the lingering traces of the dop system. WAT WAS HIE? asks a searing question: What was here?—inviting a reckoning with memory, healing, and the persistence of colonial violence in both land and body.
Awards: Storytelling Award at the imagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival - Canada (2026) Encounters Youth Experience (EYE) Award for Best African Short Film at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival (2026)
About Luke De Kock
Biography Luke De Kock is a South African director, filmmaker, choreographer, and performing artist working locally and internationally across film and performance art. His choreography has featured in both local and international productions, including Honey 3 (Universal Pictures) and Netflix’s Runs In The Family. He has also appeared in Cinderella: If the Shoe Fits and Bring It On: Worldwide. His commercial portfolio includes work for major brands such as Lays, BMW, GLO Nigeria, Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf, Savanna Dry, Adidas, Hennessy, Accenture, KFC, Simons, and Matalan. His practice spans a wide range of styles, from contemporary and hip-hop to tap and South African dance forms. In addition to his work on screen and stage, Luke has collaborated with internationally renowned artists. He performed alongside Toni Braxton during her Long As I Live Tour in South Africa, John Legend (Bidvest – On Track), and served as movement director for Lalah Hathaway’s South African tour. A graduate of Jazzart Dance Theatre and the University of Cape Town, where he studied Theatre and Performance, Luke is also recognised for his site-specific performance work interrogating indigenous heritage, Cape slavery, colonial legacies, and erased cultural narratives. He created Transit-20, a short film and documentary developed with artists from the UK and South Africa, and has participated in international collaborations including Sites of Memory and the AfroVibes Festival in the Netherlands. His project, Camissa Heritage Tour, has been presented at the Castle of Good Hope, Artscape, Iziko South Africa Museum, and Hazendal. He also contributes to arts education through Camissa Create, a school-based lecture-demonstration programme. Luke made his film directorial debut with WAT WAS HIE?, a powerful exploration of memory, identity, and erasure in post-colonial South Africa.
Programme
20:00 - Intro talk and movie
20:00 - Talk with Julia-Beth Harris and Luke De Kock + Q&A
De film beweegt langs historisch beladen locaties en stelt de urgente vraag: Wat was hier? — een uitnodiging om stil te staan bij gelaagde geschiedenissen die het heden blijven vormen.
De film is ontstaan vanuit een multidisciplinaire performance en onderzoekt thema’s als: koloniale erfenissen, de stemmen van San- en Khoi-gemeenschappen, slavernij onder Nederlandse overheersing en belichaamde storytelling als vorm van herstel. Door middel van beweging, landschap en poëtische reflectie activeert de film plekken waar kolonialisme en slavernij hun sporen hebben nagelaten. Juist in de context van gedeelde Nederlands-Zuid-Afrikaanse geschiedenis kan dit werk een urgent gesprek openen over archief, erasure en de doorwerking van koloniale structuren in het heden.
Prijzen: Storytelling Award at the imagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival - Canada (2026) Encounters Youth Experience (EYE) Award for Best African Short Film at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival (2026)
