Hazel Friedman
Hazel Friedman is a South African multi-award-winning investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, author, and writer on contemporary culture. Friedman has built a career telling stories that probe and expose injustice, celebrate courage and resilience, and magnify lives on the margins.
From 2007 to 2022, she was a senior specialist producer with Special Assignment (SABC 3) – South Africa’s flagship investigative current affairs series – where she established herself as one of the country’s leading documentary storytellers. From August 2022 to July 2024, she continued her work with Fokus (SABC 2), the broadcaster’s premier Afrikaans-language current affairs programme, where she researched, filmed, edited, scored, and completed her stories single-handedly.
Following her retirement from the SABC in July 2024, Friedman launched her career as an independent documentary filmmaker, directing Beyond the Last Mile, a film on the life and legacy of internationally acclaimed neurological nurse and psychologist Dr Lillian Nomathemba Cingo.
A published author and cultural commentator, Friedman’s career spans the intersections of politics, human rights, film, art, music, and social justice. Her work – whether on screen or in print – is united by an abiding belief in the power of storytelling to confront, expose, heal, and transform.
