Over the past decade, Ethiopian films have come to dominate the screening schedules of the many cinemas in Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Ababa, as well as other urban centers. Despite undergoing an unprecedented surge in production and popularity in Ethiopia and in the diaspora, this phenomenon has been broadly overlooked by African film and media scholars and Ethiopianists alike. This collection of essays and interviews on cinema in Ethiopia represents the first work of its kind and establishes a broad foundation for furthering research on this topic. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and bringing together contributions from both Ethiopian and international scholars, the collection offers new and alternative narratives for the development of screen media in Africa. The book’s relevance reaches far beyond its specific locale of Ethiopia as contributions focus on a broad range of topics—such as commercial and genre films, diaspora filmmaking, and the role of women in the film industry—while simultaneously discussing multiple forms of screen media, from satellite TV to “video films.” Bringing both historical and contemporary moments of cinema in Ethiopia into the critical frame offers alternative considerations for the already radically changing critical paradigm surrounding the understandings of African cinema.
ContentsIntroduction, Alessandro Jedlowski, Michael W. Thomas, and Aboneh AshagrieFrom Yeseytan Bet—Devil’s House to 7D: Mapping Cinema’s Multidimensional Manifestations in Ethiopia from Its Inception to Contemporary Developments, Michael W. ThomasFascist Imperial Cinema: An Account of Imaginary Places, Giuseppe FidottaThe Revolution Has Been Televised: Fact, Fiction, and Spectacle in the 1970s and 1980s, Kate CowcherThe Dead Speaking to the Living: Religio-Cultural Symbolisms in the Amharic Films of Haile Gerima, Tekletsadik BelachewWhether to Laugh or to Cry? Explorations of Genre in Amharic Fiction Feature Films, Michael W. ThomasWomen’s Participation in Ethiopian Cinema, Eyerusaleam KassahunThe New Frontiers of the Ethiopian Television Industry: TV Serials and Sitcoms, Bitania TadesseEthiopian Cinema and the Politics of Migration, at Home and Abroad, Alessandro JedlowskiA Wide People with a Small Screen: Oromo Cinema at Home and in Diaspora, Teferi Nigussie Tafa and Steven W. ThomasHope, Forced Migration, and Desire of Elsewhere in Eritrean Diaspora Films, Aurora Massa and Osvaldo CostantiniSomali Cinema: A Brief History Relating Italian Colonization, Somali Diaspora, and the Changing Ideas of Nationhood, Daniele ComberiatiDebebe Eshetu (actor and director), interviewed by Aboneh AshagrieBehailu Wassie (scriptwriter and director), interviewed by Michael W. ThomasYidnekachew Shumete Desalegn (director and producer), interviewed by Alessandro JedlowskiContributorsIndex
