Peter Machen is a writer, designer and artist from Durban, South Africa. He is the author of Durban – A Paradise and its People and the follow-up, Durban – A Return to Paradise. A respected art critic and film writer, Peter was the director of the Durban International Film Festival from 2013 to 2016 and worked with the festival as a programmer and writer since 2008. He was the arts editor of the Independent on Saturday from 2001 until 2004 and has acted as a Durban Correspondent for a number of national publications.

He currently heads the media cooperative The Communication Factory, writes a weekly film column for the South African newspaper The Witness and lives in Berlin.