Mikhail Peppas

He is fondly known as the “Sherlock Holmes of Screenwriting Chic”. A media entrepreneur and film historian, he runs master classes in screenwriting, narrative futures, comic book production, virtual reality and the future of storytelling.

Peppas was awarded the 2017 Simon “Mabhunu” Sabela Film and Television Award for Lifetime Achievement. The spotlight shines on firsts for Africa originated by Peppas that include a film school called the Free Film School and a community television station, Greater Durban Television (GDTV). He received a grant for the book and documentary project, The history of the moving image in KwaZulu-Natal. The award ceremony was hosted by the Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria in honour of the 2016 winners of the Academic & Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa (ANFASA) Grant Scheme for Authors.

The first volume focuses on the pioneering days of cinema in Natal and film-going as a social phenomenon. Topics range across filming on the Boer War battlefields to the opening in 1909 of the first dedicated cinema in Africa, The Electric Theatre, Durban.

He is an honorary research associate in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the Durban University of Technology.