Palesa Nomanzi Shongwe is an independent filmmaker, scriptwriter, and teacher. Her first film, Atrophy, won the Jury Award at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in Germany. In 2016 she released uNomalanga and the Witch, which follows newlywed Nomalanga, who moves into a new neighborhood with her husband and finds herself intrigued by a mysterious widow who everyone suspects killed her late husband.