Awra Amba Screening in Brussels

Tomorrow I'm off to Brussels for a screening of Awra Amba and a Q&A, thanks to Jarmo and Staffan, two Finnish guys who run an adventure travel company in Africa and an Ethiopian coffee shop in Brussels. They've invited me over to their new cafe, Aksum Coffee House, which I've happily accepted :)

http://aksumcoffeehouse.wordpress.com/

Awra Amba in Canada

Our distribution efforts have paid off and Awra Amba has been travelling the festival circuit around the world!
The film has now been screened at many festivals in the UK, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Taiwan and most recently Canada.

I have been invited to this film festival in November http://www.regentparkfilmfestival.com/home.html to screen it and to join a panel to talk about vertical versus horizonal communities. Other panelists include Kat Cizek, whose work I'm a big fan of, with her new amazing interactive doc Out My Window. http://interactive.nfb.ca/#/outmywindow

Other news!
Awra Amba is now available on the new US-based View Change platform, telling stories that empower progress. To watch online go to: http://www.viewchange.org/videos/awra-amba

We are also in the development phase of an interactive web documentary based on the story of Awra Amba which we are pitching at Sheffield Meet Market in a couple of weeks.

Watch this space...

Awra Amba touring at international film festivals

My distribution assistant Sinem and I have have been very busy sending out film submissions of Awra Amba to international festivals this spring.

So far, the film has been shown to cinema audiences in Ethiopia and in the UK, and is travelling further afield this summer to In The Palace film festival in Bulgaria and CNEX film festival in Taiwan. We're delighted the story from a rural Ethiopian village has had such wide reach and can't wait for the feedback!

Here is a write-up about the film in Balchik, Bulgaria...
http://www.inthepalace.com/en/2010/film_palace_fest/film_program/by_film/films-go/byfilm/QQ==/1408

Awra Amba features on BBC World News

I am very excited, inspired and at the same time very scared. Last week the GMT programme on BBC World News contacted me asking for a live interview to talk about Awra Amba! It's a fantastic opportunity, but when it comes to live appearances on global channels, I am still a spring chicken. I'm trying to remember everything I learned in a pitch training workshop last year - breath, speak clearly and memorise the most important points you want to emphasize. Write it all down and practice.

Most exciting part is of course that they will feature some parts of the film and give airtime to a place which I feel very passionate about, having struggled for many years to make the film happen. I am glad that finally their story is out in mainstream media globally. I feel it's a big milestone in this project and I hope that as a result, many people will see the film and engage in the debate about gender equality and development.

If you can, please tune in!
It's at 12.45pm tomorrow, Tuesday 23rd of February.

Can't wait to hear all the feedback :)

Paulina

My journey to make the film in Awra Amba

31st December 2009

I’m hugely excited about the prospect of finally sharing the story of Awra Amba with the world – more than 5 years after I discovered it. I want to tell you about it from the start, so perhaps you’ll share and understand my excitement.

In November 2004, I was a newly graduated documentary maker and I’d gone off to Ethiopia backpacking (as you do). Well, I had a reason – my lovely aunt Liisa lived there at the time. She had invited me over several times and I finally found an opportunity to go. Her being a busy, high profile economist working for an important water project in Ethiopia, she couldn’t take time off work easily just to come and ‘hang out’ with me on lengthy bus journeys to random towns and villages on the countryside. Though of course she would have liked to J

So I went off on my own to my first stop in Bahir Dar – planning to do a trip around some of the significant cities in the North on a so-called ‘historical circuit’. Bahir Dar is located North west of Addis Abeba, which is pretty much bang in the middle of the country. Liisa had hooked me up with a Bahir Dar-based Finnish colleague named Anu, who had kindly offered to take me with her on her work trip. 

So when I stepped off my flight on a dusty airport runway in the morning sun, Anu was waiting there in a jeep. We spent 4 days driving around some very remote villages in the mountains, sleeping in flea-infected run down motels, eating nothing but injera, injera, injera (local staple – a type of sour pancake.) It was to say the least a slight culture shock after the relatively modern and comfortable Addis living. 

I loved every second of it. It was probably my most memorable trip to date. It completely opened my eyes and I saw so much, met so many people. Heard so many stories. I was struck by how beautiful Ethiopia was and the Ethiopians too, yet how poor. And how poverty affects their every day lives in a drastic way. No clean water, very little food, 10km walk to the nearest school, no transportation, no shoes, ripped and dirty clothes, HIV, suffering, heat, flies, unemployment. To name a few. It did really hit me in the face.

I also saw many development initiatives around me – NGO signs were everywhere, implementing projects to help these poor communities. One very remote village we went to, about 8 hours drive from the nearest other town had a shiny, new yellow brick building. It had been built with money donated by a big NGO. But it was fenced off from the rest of the village, which consisted of mud huts, and the people didn’t have access to it. In fact, only some local government people had access to it and I never really understood WHO they were and WHY this building was only built for them. And who had decided that a large brick building was going to be erected in the middle of a very poor town when it couldn’t be used by anyone? The mind baffles. 

There were many similar incidents on my trip and on my way back Anu asked me if I would be interested in visiting a village that was different. “Different in which way?” I asked. She told me that this village was more developed than the others and that they had a different philosophy of life. They believe in self-help development instead of aid, they promote women’s rights and equality. They all work together and share the profits. And they don’t practice religion. This sounded like an unusual place to me from what I had seen so far, as even in the smallest village there always seemed to be a church or a mosque (Ethiopia is about 60% Christian and 40% Muslim). I was curious, so we went.

This is how I discovered Awra Amba. We were greeted by a friendly community member who didn’t speak any English but guided around in Amharic, and Anu’s colleague translated for us. While he showed us the village; the school, the library, the elders care home and a couple of the members’ own houses, he explained about their ideology and how they had come together to build this community.

Zumra Nuru had already as a small boy decided that he wanted to change the lives of Ethiopian women for the better. It took him time to get there as his revolutionary ideas were mostly opposed or frown upon. After years of traveling he managed to find 19 people who shared his beliefs (most of them came from a moderate muslim background) and together they established a village in the same spot where it still is today. But their life was full of trouble from suspicious neigbouring communities and the Government.

In the late 80s Zumra was arrested and taken into prison and the group dispersed. They went to live in the South of Ethiopia until after the Derg regime had fallen. When Zumra and his compatriots came back to Awra Amba (some of them had sadly died by then) they were only given a small piece of land by the local government. It wasn’t enough to cultivate land, so they started to weave. They are all self-taught.

It struck me almost as a Marxist cooperative. Everyone is treated equally and they all work the same hours doing a job that they are good at, regardless of gender. Profits from the products they make are shared between everyone equally. Despite its Marxist structure, the inhabitants are allowed to make their own money on the side, so a lot of them had looms in their houses where they continued weaving after their normal working hours.

There are no weekends here and no holidays. It may feel a bit harsh, but the other side of the coin is poverty and famine, something I’m sure none of them want to return to. And the benefits include children’s education, elderly care, democratic decision making, not to mention women’s rights. This is an absolute heaven for a woman in rural Ethiopia. No early marriage, circumcision, endless housework, lack of education, countless children. Here women are safe from domestic violence – theft, violence and lying are 3 things that will get you quickly thrown out of here. 

Having witnessed the way most other rural villages in Ethipia are, Awra Amba looked like an incredibly progressive place, where all details had been thought of (for instance they have a really clever way of building toilets that don’t smell or spread diseases). I was also very impressed by how important education was for them, and how women had a whole different level of value. Men doing housework seems a pretty progressive thing even for us in the West! ;)

At the end of our visit, we were asked to write our names in a guestbook that the community kept. In the book there were only about 20 other foreign names. 4 years later the number has grown to 10,000 visitors a year. Zumra, the founder and leader wasn’t around that day so I didn’t get to meet him, but I was aware of his influence all around. The place was organized, clean, peaceful, no kids crowding around my feet, and everyone was busy working, not loitering around. There was an atmosphere of happiness and calm. I loved it. I thought if I had to pick a place to live in the Ethiopian countryside, it would be here.

And it was then that I decided I wanted to make a film there.

But after my return to Europe it seemed like a very distant, sweet dream. I was unemployed, poor and without a flat. There was no way I would be able to return to Ethiopia anytime soon. And it did take me over 3 years. In that time, I had already given up hope to ever make the film and I kept googling the place to see if anyone else had been there to make a film yet. Awra Amba was growing in popularity and I started to see travel blogs and articles mentioning it.  But no film. 

I pitched the idea to many channels and producers, but to no avail. In late 2007 I was at a friend’s screening at the Frontline Club in London. She had made a film about African tomato pickers in Spain and their journeys to Europe. I got talking to a girl who was friends with my friend in the bar (she is a cinematographer) and soon realized we had very similar ideas about what we wanted to do. I told her briefly about my idea to go to Ethiopia and Awra Amba and within half an hour she had agreed to come with me on this journey. 

We started planning it together. We had no funding from anywhere so it had to be self-financed. As soon as we started telling people of our plans to go, paid work started to surface and we managed to get two projects which we could shoot on the same trip that would cover our expenses.

So in February 2008 Meira and I went to Awra Amba. We spent a week there getting to know people, researching and filming a bit. They had just finished building a guesthouse in the village and were installing lighting inside when we came. There were 14 beds in 13 rooms. Each had a bed, raised from the floor made from mud (and probably some cow dung I suspect) covered with straw mattresses. Each room also had a window with a shutter. The three of us (Meira, my Ethiopian translator and I) were their first guests.

We made it our own. There had been 1 or 2 Ethiopian PhD students staying in the village before but we were also the first whites. It must have been quite an amusing experience also for the Awra Ambans to see our Western ways – cooking sachets of pasta on a camping stove outside the guesthouse on the grass and snacking on energy bars in between meals to keep going. Even Yinebeb, our translator looked in total disbelief when he saw me take a knife and start cutting an onion one day. He was surprised that I was able to cook. Because he was convinced that everyone in the West had live-in housekeepers who did that!

Most of the time we ate with the villagers (injera and shiro – a thin, yellow paste of lentils) and drank endless amounts of their delicious sugary tea. Every few days Zumra would come to me to enquire about our well-being and my philosophical and ethical values. He wanted to make sure that we were on the same page. The man has endured some very harsh times due to his beliefs and is naturally wary of newcomers. We had brought with us books for their school and library and a blow up globe which is now hanging up in their library. (Note to anyone who is thinking of going there – books go down well as there is a real yearning for education).

We also got to know Zeinab – the teahouse keeper and her daughter, the shy and fragile Zibad who was keeping a little spice stall next to the mill in order to support her 5 kids. She wasn’t part of the community yet – first she has to fill their criteria and bring in a certain amount of capital. I learned that there is a difference between a community member and an association member. Anyone can be an association member of Awra Amba and live outside – even in the West – as long as you share their beliefs and follow their lifestyle. Zumra claims that he has some members in Germany J and elsewhere in Ethiopia. He was talking about making Awra Amba membership cards for them!

This trip strengthened my notion that I really love this place and I wanted to make a film. With the footage and a firmer proposal in hand I went over to the UNFPA office is Addis Ababa to talk about possible collaboration and funding. They came on board with a small amount and back in London I got a travel grant for journalists. I managed to scramble together enough cash to go back for a second time for a ‘real’ shoot.

In May, 2008 Susi Arnott (a wonderful and talented camerawoman and also director with anthropology background) came with me. We had our sweet Yinebeb with us again as translator and had decided to spend 2 weeks living in the village. It was coming up to the rainy season and the days were split between nice sunny mornings and strong downpours in the afternoons / evenings. It made it slightly more difficult to film and electricity was cut almost daily. But we didn’t let it get us down!

We again stayed in the guesthouse and were the only guests in the first week. In the second week the whole place was rammed when a group of 48 Ethiopian visitors arrived in order to study the way of life in Awra Amba. That night the guesthouse, and many of the inhabitants huts too were full of people.

I had decided to follow the mother /daughter pair who I thought were very sweet, but my main reason was of course that Zibad was a newcomer in the village which I thought was interesting as she had lived most of her life in a normal village and now completely changed her life.

Her mother had done the same, but she had already been living in Awra Amba for about 4-5 years. Both women had endured domestic violence and both were divorced. It seemed like they had so much in common and now they were finally living together, safe from the abusive relationships. I also found them both incredibly beautiful and Zeinab especially has a very funny and dry sense of humour.

Visitors came and went almost every day. On busy days (like Sundays) there were busloads of visitors. It seemed to be turning into a bit of a themepark! We just kept filming and curious Ethiopians were wondering how we could stay in the village for so long.

After a week of filming we went back to Bahir Dar to charge our batteries (literally!). We stayed over night and ate fresh fish and drank litres of delicious coffee (which is forbidden in Awra Amba). We also showered thoroughly. After spending a week in a dusty village there was a fair amount of dirt coming off!

When we went back the following day we were told that Zumra and his wife Ennanney had left. But nobody could tell us where they went. Or when they would be back. Until then I had not been able to interview or film Zumra at all (apart from a debate with a group of student visitors one day). I was quite gobsmacked as somehow this didn’t fit into my plans or shooting schedule. 

He did not come back at all that week. We kept asking some of the village elders (and the bodyguard who is always around Zumra, and had been given the task of babysitting his children) but they couldn’t give us any answer. So secretive! We started to have all kinds of theories about why people weren’t telling us and where he might have gone. It became our daily banter. 

In the second week, I also started to fell tension from the villagers toward us. A few people looked outright angry when we asked them to be interviewed. Also some eyebrows were raised when we went up to Zeinab and Zibad’s house a few times. Some people were wondering why we had chosen to film them, since Zibad wasn’t even a member of the community. We just tried to put everyone at ease by explaining that we wanted to film a character whose life had once been elsewhere, so it calmed them down a bit.

All in all our time in Awra Amba was really special. There were some dark rainy nights but also very bright, fresh mornings, wonderful people so full of life and a calmness that stayed with me for a long time. I became very close with Zeinab and Zibad – even though we don’t speak the same language. I learned that the Awra Ambans are very hardworking, positive and hospitable. They are organized, respectful and educated. They want a better life for the next generation and they believe in helping the poorer and weaker. In general they are very charitable and generous. 

I thought about how intense such living must be and yet how well they get on. I witnessed a few situations where there seemed to be some disagreement between members, and it was often money related. It left me wondering if there are bigger conflicts or arguments in the village or if there is another side to it that we didn’t see. At times it felt a little bit difficult to really get under the surface and the members seemed to all sing the same song. But maybe that is precisely why the place is so successful and prospering. They share the same beliefs and values. They also work ALL the time and they don’t have much time left over for gossip and arguments. But I’m sure they still happen. It would be inhuman otherwise. Awra Amba left me with a content feeling, yet also curious about its picture-perfectness.

The day before we were due to leave a parasite hit me. I got weak so fast that we had to call our driver to come up the day before and I was taken to the nearest clinic in Bahir Dar where they put me on a drip and diagnosed me with typhoid fever. The next afternoon however I was well enough to get on a plane to Addis and I started to wonder if I really did have typhoid, which is meant to knock you out badly for about 2 weeks. I went to the doctor’s in Addis and I was right, it was no typhoid, ‘just’ ameba. So I got a new batch of antibiotics and continued working in a half-condition.

It took me almost 18 months to complete the film after I finished filming. I had no budget left over for post-production and other paid projects came up in between. So on our spare time, Catalin (editor), Eyob (translator and edit assistant) and myself worked to make the film. 

Eyob was an angel for translating almost 32 hours of footage from the poetic Amharic to legible English for me and Catalin was a star for putting together the film so skillfully from a multitude of storylines and characters. Many long nights and weekends were spent in the editing suite mulling over the cut – trying to decide its length, story and narrative arc. It felt like a never-ending process sometimes. 

Then the composer Alan Gibson got involved and composed beautiful, gentle music to enhance the flow and give it an atmosphere. Finally sound designer Bulent, who worked on my first film Thorns and Silk, took it off our hands and did magic with the soundtrack – really lifting the film to a new level. I’m eternally grateful to everyone who made this film possible – for the countless hours you put in for free. I know that you all believed in the project and that’s why you did it. So THANK YOU!

I hope you now appreciate the journey it took to make this film – which used to be a distant dream and now is completely real. I also developed professionally during this period, discovered my own voice and learned from my mistakes. I feel like I’ve come a long way since the first discovery of Awra Amba in 2004 as a filmmaker.