Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Tuesday, June 16th, 2015
New York (TADIAS) — The following is a ReelBlack TV interview with the acclaimed Ethiopian filmmaker and Howard University Professor Haile Gerima about his current Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for his new film Yetut Lij.
Gerima who launched the online campaign earlier this month “aims to raise $500,000 in matching production funds, the minimum needed to match existing co-production funds and film on location in Ethiopia,” according to Indiewire.
“Gerima’s prospective feature will be his 12th film and 8th dramatic narrative. The film’s title is an Amharic term that usually refers to any child taken in and raised by someone, other than their biological parent. Set primarily in Gerima’s childhood town of Gondar, the story takes place in the 1960’s, some 20 years after the Italo-Ethiopian War. Aynalem, a 13 year old peasant girl, is adopted by a wealthy judge’s family and taken away from her own. Promised an educated upbringing and a better life, she is instead, brutalized and forced to work as a domestic servant.”
Indiewire notes: “A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Gerima has spent over 40 years making independent films of “ substance and bold expression” (THE WASHINGTON POST). Having worked alongside other independent filmmakers, like Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry and Larry Clark, Gerima has mastered the production of high value, low budget films, outside of commercial and mainstream institutions…With this June’s campaign on Indiegogo, Gerima expects to reach a new, and younger audience hungry for films like his, while activating the loyal base of supporters that made his previous works possible.”
Watch his sit-down with ReelBlack TV:
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Related:
Haile Gerima Kicks Off Crowdfunding Campaign for New Film ‘Yetut Lij’