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Filmmaker, expert in the Ethiopian film industry and professor Eyerusalem Kassahun. (ZPS)
ZÓCALO PUBLIC SQUARE
Successful female writers, directors and producers set the nation apart from Hollywood, Bollywood, and the rest of world cinema
Among the many stories about Ethiopia’s long and multifaceted past and politically complicated present, one remarkable transformation that has received less media attention is the dramatic leap forward in its film industry. Before 2004, Ethiopia produced only a few films from time to time. But by 2015, nearly 100 new locally produced shows were hitting theaters in its capital, Addis Ababa, every year. Local television has also grown and diversified.
Behind the rise of Ethiopian cinema is an even more remarkable story of women who, as writers, directors, producers and academics, were leaders in this transformation.
The prominent role of women in industry can set Ethiopia apart from most other countries. All over the world, from Hollywood to Bollywood, the film and television industries have been dominated by men. In the United States, the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University and the Women and Hollywood website have shown that only 12 percent of directors, 20 percent of directors, Writers and 26 percent of producers are women, even though 51 percent of audiences are.
In Africa, the founding manifestos of film institutions of the 1960s, such as the famous FESPACO festival in Burkina Faso, are committed to decolonization, racial equality, and the empowerment of women; So, in principle, they are more progressive than the United States. However, the history of African cinema is generally told as a succession of male directors, such as heir kings to the FESPACO throne: Ousmane Sembene. Souleymane Cissé. Idrissa Ouédraogo. Abderrahmane Sissako. The pattern has persisted despite proactive efforts, which began in the 1990s, by festival organizers and institutions such as the Center for the Study and Research of African Women in Film to empower African women to make films.
So what is different in Ethiopia?
On frequent visits in recent years, I have met some of Ethiopia’s most prominent filmmakers, as well as professors of film and theater history at Addis Ababa University. They are well aware of what the film industries are like in other parts of the world and point out that Ethiopia is not a paradise for women either. Sexism and gender disparities in financing and lending to entrepreneurs remain pervasive, despite the nation’s constitution prohibiting discrimination. And while no agency in Ethiopia has looked at the issue of gender in the media industry, my own informal survey of the lists of films authorized by the Addis Ababa Office of Culture and Tourism indicates that the gender ratios are similar to those of U.S.
What is different in Ethiopia is the influence and success of women in the film business. In a highly competitive industry where many people never make more than one movie, women have enjoyed longer-lasting success as writers, directors, and producers. Films made by women have tended to do better at the box office and have won many trophies at the nation’s annual Gumma Film Awards.
Some of the “first things” in Ethiopian film history were accomplished by innovative women. After the nation moved away from the Derg regime, under which film and television were financed and controlled by the government, the first person to risk privately financing an independent film was Rukiya Ahmed, with Tsetzet (directed by Tesfaye Senke on U-matic in 1993). ) about a detective solving a murder case.
Women who exploit Ethiopia’s film industry | Zócalo Public Plaza • Arizona State University • Smithsonian
Arsema Worku. Courtesy of Steven W. Thomas.
Later, one of the first films to make the switch from celluloid to video was Helen Tadesse’s Yeberedo Zemen (translated as Ice Age). She originally intended the film to be a sitcom for Ethiopian television, but, after a contract dispute, she decided to re-edit the episodes into a single film. In 2002, it was the first Ethiopian film shot on VHS to be shown in a cinema and sparked a revolution in the country’s film industry.
With the shift from celluloid to VHS and, later, to digital cinema, the local cinema culture exploded and films grew in number and diversity. Many women took advantage of the new opportunities to follow Tadesse’s example and some quickly became industry leaders.
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