Jenna Cato Bass

Biography

Jenna Cato Bass is a South African filmmaker, writer, and former magician known for her inventive storytelling and genre-blending films. Born in London in 1986 and raised in South Africa, she studied at AFDA in Cape Town. Her early work includes short films like The Tunnel, which premiered at Sundance and Berlin. She gained recognition with her debut feature, Love the One You Love (2014), a low-budget romantic drama that won Best South African Feature at the Durban International Film Festival. Bass continued to explore themes of identity and society with High Fantasy (2017), a body-swap satire shot entirely on iPhones, and Flatland (2019), a feminist Western that opened the Berlinale Panorama. In 2021, she co-wrote and directed Good Madam (Mlungu Wam), a psychological horror that premiered at TIFF, delving into post-apartheid racial dynamics. Beyond filmmaking, Bass co-founded Jungle Jim, a genre fiction magazine, and writes short stories under the pseudonym Constance Myburgh. She is also a co-founder of Free Film School, an alternative arts education initiative in Cape Town.

Filmography