Nare Mokgotho

Equipped with a fine arts degree and a Master of Arts, Fine/Studio Arts, General, Cum Laude, Nare is no run-of-the-mill director. Having grown up on a steady diet of movies and commercials, Nare pursued a career in advertising as a copywriter. His admiration for the brevity and ambition of commercials inspired him to enter the industry after art school. For him commercials are narrative haikus.

Nare picked up several awards while working in advertising, before making his move to work in commercial film production. As a director, he quickly made his mark. In 2019, he won two Gold Screen Awards at the 20th Edition of the Young Directors Award for his first two commercials; ShowMax “Zero Bucks Given” and RapidLion “Wreaths”.

A true creative, Nare is also a practising visual artist who has exhibited both locally and internationally. His accolades include nominations for the Vera List Prize for Art and Politics (2016 - 2018), the MTN New Contemporaries (2012) and the Sasol New Signatures (2008).

His years as an ad-man taught him to interrogate ideas as much as possible, which has resulted in the firm conceptual grounding, pitch-perfect timing and humour that defines his work. He also maintains that ‘you can only produce as well as you consume’ and to that end he reads, watches and listens to a wide variety of material. With all these varied influences, what Nare holds above all else is a comedic narrative well-told.