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  • Ethiopian Cinema Today:An Interview with Ethiopian Filmmakers Yamrot Nigussie, Hiwot Admasu Getaneh, Hermon Hailay, Adanech Admasu, and Debebe Daniel Negatu
  • Olivier Barlet

Editor’s note: this interview with Ethiopian filmmakers connected with the project “Addis to Cannes” took place at the sixty-seventh Cannes Film Festival in June 2014. The first part of the interview was done with the filmmakers as a group before the individual artists were interviewed.

Olivier Barlet (OB):

What brings you together in Cannes?

Group:

A program brought by two associations called EFI (Ethiopian Film Initiative) and IEFTA (International Emerging Film Talent Association). It gives the opportunity to Ethiopian filmmakers to come here to Cannes, in order to connect with filmmakers, producers, and to get distribution. It is an initiative to get the Ethiopian films to reach the international market and to raise the awareness towards Ethiopian filmmakers. [End Page 221]

OB:

To raise international awareness to the fact that there is an Ethiopian cinema?

Group:

Absolutely.

OB:

This is the third edition of the program.

Group:

Yes, but this year is special. It’s the first time that a girl comes to the Cannes Film Festival. We have four girls here this year, and that’s good. (Editor’s note: other than Daniel Negatu, all of the filmmakers interviewed here are women)

OB:

There were only men before?

Group:

Yes, there were six men, this year is different. This was very exciting for us. So many women applied, we actually got more women than men this year. That had never happened before. So far they have had amazing feedback concerning their projects. Hermon has made three films, she’s working on her short film and she’s also preparing another feature, preparing her transition from documentary to narrative. There’s a great variety of filmmakers. So it is great for them to see how distribution and financing works. It’s been very eye-opening for them, I think.

OB: Do you think that Ethiopian filmmaking has the possibility to reach the international market? Would you say it’s a local production or rather an international production?

Group:

I think it’s both. You have to have local support in order to grow internationally. And they worked really hard to get that, and the next step is to grow internationally. It’s a natural outgrowth of where they’re going as filmmakers.

OB:

Yamrot Nigussie, you made documentaries, television dramas and you are working on a film about a twenty-two-year-old Ethiopian housemaid returning from a harsh working environment in Saudi Arabia. Why that topic?

Yamrot Nigussie (YN):

It is a role model for our country, because most girls go to Saudi Arabia, experience and then come back to their country.

OB:

Is it a big problem in your country?

YN:

Yes.

OB:

Your film seems deeply rooted into reality. Is it a documentary, docudrama, or a fiction?

YN:

It is a docudrama. [End Page 222]

OB:

You made documentaries and dramas for television. What is your style, and what is your favorite subject?

YN:

I did documentaries on several organizations and their activities. And I also directed and produced television dramas focusing on social problems, such as corruption, HIV, AIDS. All of these were produced by our production company.

OB:

Is it possible to direct movies in Ethiopia today about corruption? It’s not a problem to show corruption on TV?

YN:

No, it’s not a problem. I produced these dramas jointly with the government organization.

OB:

There is no censorship?

YN:

No, there isn’t.

OB:

Hiwot Admasu Getaneh, you have an “experimental approach.” What does that mean?

Hiwot Admasu Getaneh (HAG):

I teach myself the art of filmmaking, I experiment when I shoot films, and I try to learn things in the process. The short film project that I brought here is going to be my next project.

OB:

It is about Selam, a thirteen-year-old girl who’s discovering her sexuality against the backdrop of a very conservative society.

HAG:

This short movie is a tale of coming of age, and is mostly about Selam. She’s thirteen and she lives in a rural area. One morning...

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