The month of January usually finds university campus grounds eerily empty. It’s a time of the year when first semester exams are just around the corner. Sometimes referred to as Ye’Genna Maebel (Christmas Storm), this time of year is feared because the outcome of the exams can decide whether a student stays in school or has to leave. So there is no time for conversation, relaxation or socialization; it’s time for all students to button down and study like there’s no tomorrow to ensure their survival on campus for another year.

Even the campus cafeteria – normally the scene where the hottest campus news and gossip (also known as PD or ‘Personal Data’) is freely dispensed – is unusually empty. The joteni (foosball) and ping-pong tables have fallen silent and the dama (checkers) gurus have also taken leave of their stands. When you do see the occasional student on a campus pathway, it is quite likely that he may be heading back to his dorm with a zurba (roll of khat) hidden under a shirt.

There are those students who are normally referred to as sekayochu (those who achieve high grades on their exams), some of whom are thought to rely heavily on khat (a narcotic stimulant) to help keep them awake during long nights of studying. This is especially true for the procrastinators who feel like they need every bit of advantage that the alertness and increased ability to concentrate that are known to be effects of chewing khat, can bestow. But its use on college campuses, goes far beyond just a select group amongst those who achieve the best results on campus.

She may not be as well known as Prof Haile Gerima—the celebrated US-based Ethiopian filmmaker and scholar—due to her age and recent entry into the African audiovisual media sector but 25-year-old Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse’s creativity is pushing her onto the podium where she will join the stars of filmmaking and become one of them. OGOVA ONDEGO reports.

Though trained in computer science, her passion and determination for filmmaking appears to be stronger than her attraction to computers. At the age of 23, soon after graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, she scripted, directed and produced ALDEWOLEM (He Didn’t Call Me), a US$13,000 romantic comedy on the games that young, single, city-dwelling African women and men play but find they cannot extricate themselves from what they began as innocuous practical jokes using the now common cell phone.

A ‘Juliet-and-Romeo’-like themed film set on St Valentine’s Day, the success of the 108-minute ALDEWOLEM exceeded the expectations of many. In fact, it is still showing in cinemas. It was one of the top blockbuster movies in Ethiopia for more than three months in 2008. The movie is said to have received rave reviews in the media for what is described as its unique contribution to Ethiopian cinema. It wound up with nominations in four categories—best director, best writer, best actress, best supporting actress—at the 4th Ethiopia International Film Festival in 2009.

ALDEWOLEM, a film about four girlfriends trying to hook up one of their best friend’s cousin with one of their friends without his knowledge, is now a contender for the best African film prize at the continental 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria in 2010. It has also been accepted for screening at various festivals in the United States and the director who considers her foray into filmmaking a calling, is not only excited but is now confident that she has made the right decision in following her heart to the magical world of moving images. She is today on location in Addis as we file this article on her work.

I first met Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse in February 2009 at the Imagine Film Institute in Burkina Faso during the Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). She had been one of a handful Africans selected to participate in a two-month film-training workshop that also gave her the chance to participate in the making of the newsreel for FESPACO; she worked as a cameraperson, editor and director of different events and newsreel which was broadcast on television stations like RTB, CFI, and NTA and is still online at dailymotion.com.
“In the course of the training, I had the opportunity to work with great filmmakers like Gaston Kabore, John Lvoff, Fernand Damsereau, Bertrand Lenclos and Rod Stonemann, the director of Houston Film School, Ireland. Under their tutelage,” Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse says, “I made a short film, LIPSTICK, which was highly applauded after its selected screenings during the FESPACO period. It was also entered for competition at the Nigerian Entertainment Film Festival (NEFFA) in 2009.

But how did Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse get into filmmaking?

“I have always been passionate about movies and music. In my college days I got a call from a renowned Ethiopian filmmaker who asked me to sing a song for the soundtrack of his upcoming movie. That was my first inspiration for movie making,” she says.

But this is hardly a confirmation that she is called to make films, isn’t it?

“My driving force in filmmaking comes from the fact that I grew up watching lots of movies. Film serves as a great source of inspiration to me and it also broadens my horizon,” she says. “Renowned artists like Julia Roberts and Sophia Coppola have been inspirational to me because of their ability to transcend into the movie business and make their womanhood their strength. I never thought I’d be a filmmaker one day but after I started, I discovered that film is another aspect of human existence, which is so natural. It wasn’t planned but perhaps, it was a leap of faith.”

OK, that is well put. Hers is a leap of faith.

Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse continues: “Immediately after my graduation from College I decided to write a script, which posed the greatest challenge of my life. Finding the resources to cover the budget for the film proved very difficult. The only choice I had was to look for sponsors. Even finding them was very difficult because usually big companies and investors are interested in sponsoring filmmakers that have a track record in the business. Finally before I gave up, my parents consented generously to cover the film’s budget.”

She has little illusion that the absence of a film school in Ethiopia means that film practitioners have to learn through trial and error.

“Well, I had to start somewhere; and once I got started, perseverance, commitment and determination is getting me through.”

But Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse also understands the importance of certification or affirmation in one’s career. “My plan is to get a better education in a higher institution and be a better filmmaker and use the knowledge I acquire as a tool for showing the world where I come from. My driving force and zeal is to make a positive change in my country for a better tomorrow and film is the right tool for that adventure into Disney land of positivism.”

Though the number of films shot in Ethiopia are limited and largely produced by established Ethiopian filmmakers trained and mostly residing abroad, a few people, like Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse, are starting to make films. This is out of the realisation that film could play a major developmental role.

But this is a tall order in a country without the necessary film infrastructure with professional crews, equipment, knowledge and experience: “It takes a lot of courage to work in the film sector in Ethiopia where one works as a labour of love. The tax and the cinema renting fee are higher than the filmmaker’s returns!” Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse says.

The average budget of making a good film in Ethiopia is about US$25,000. Cinemas usually charge filmmakers US$700-800 per day to screen their work while a ticket price is US$1.25 per head.

For Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse, filmmaking is like a school that is full of lessons.

“From my experience as a first time director, I have discovered that directing and editing are very interesting aspects of filmmaking. The director sets the tone of the work place and takes all the positive energy film people bring to the work place and jacks it up even higher. The director creates a mental picture, based on the script, of what the finished film looks like. Working as a director and an editor will give you the opportunity to see the pictures and how to put them together and make them flow. Filmmaking is very challenging and it is not an easy job. But the satisfaction that a film maker gets when the audience reacts to what they see is beyond imagination. For me filmmaking is like watching your own child playing games that please everyone. It is a tool to communicate with people we don’t even know and share our perspective on life.”

[right]By Ogova Ondego
Published January 18, 2010

A new Ethiopian film that has spent four years in the making ‘Nege’ which means tomorrow, has started screening in Addis Ababa at Alem Cinema and Edna Mall. The film is written and directed by Alebachew Arage and produced by Sat Multimedia Training.

Postponed from its original plan the film has been delayed several times due to financial and other setbacks. “We started the film under the impression that we would not need more than 100,000 Birr to make it but it has cost us 430,000 Birr.”

The director told us this week that he has found the whole filmmaking a learning process having written 11 plays in the wollo region while serving in the church as a child.

By Samuel Kinde According to a report published in 1999, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, which seismologist say could happen in areas of close proximity to Addis Ababa, the country's major city, could cause as many as 4000-5000 deaths, 8000-10,000 injuries and a displacement of as many as 500,000 people and a total damage in excess of 12 Billion Birr [1]. Addis Ababa itself is only 75-100 kilometers away from the western edge of the Main Ethiopian Rift Valley, which is a hotbed of tremors and active volcanoes. Some of Ethiopia's major cities like Addis Ababa, Nazret, Dire Dawa and Awassa are very near main fault lines such as the Wonji fault, the Nazret fault, the Addis-Ambo-Ghedo fault, and the Fil Woha fault lines along which numerous earthquakes of varying magnitude have occurred over the years. Other cities like Arba Minch, Dessie, and Mekele are also located in some of the most seismically active areas in the country. The presence of the Fil Woha hot springs in the middle of Addis Ababa itself, for example, is nature's reminder that the city lies on fault lines that have been slowly building strains. It is the release of these strains accumulated over the years that cause the phenomenon of earthquake. 

Damaged brick masonry building in Kara Kore during Kara Kore Earthquake - 1961. Courtesy P. Gouin.

Pierre Gouin, founder and long-time director of the Geophysical Observatory at the Addis Ababa University has extensively written about earthquake hazards in Ethiopia, particularly from the 1400's to 1977 in his now classic book: Earthquake History of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa [2]. In his book, Gouin describes the earthquakes of 1906 and 1961 that shook Addis Ababa and caused widespread panic. Gouin writes, "the magnitude of the main shock of 25 August 1906 was 6.75; the estimated epicentral location, 100 km south of Addis Ababa. The August tremors were exceptionally violent. It is also reported that the shock of 28 October was strong enough to cause the bells of the Church in the Finfine district to ring spontaneously." He further adds, "The population of Addis Ababa was greatly afraid. Damage, however, was slight because: the town, being barely 10-years-old, had not yet fully developed."

According to the International Red Cross, as many as 50,000 are dead and three million others affected by earthquake devastation. Time is running out to find family members and other survivors who are buried in the debris.

Coca-Cola Co.'s charitable arm is donating $1 million to the American Red Cross to go toward earthquake relief in Haiti.

The world's largest soft drink maker also said it is donating bottled water and other drinks through its bottler in the Dominican Republic.

CEO Muhtar Kent told the company's 92,000 employees in an e-mail Wednesday the Atlanta-based company is checking on the safety of the 850 people who work for its bottler there. Three Coca-Cola employees who happened to be in Haiti during the earthquake Tuesday were safe and have since gone to the Dominican Republic, the company said.

I'm not sure we know how lucky we are that Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba have chosen to make so many appearances in the United Kingdom.
The world's two greatest distance runners - with a collective total of 45 Olympic and world golds - are due to be in action again at the Great North Cross Country in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Between them they have won this corresponding race on seven occasions and in Bekele's case, his 2001 victory as a teenager was the first of a six-year 27-race win streak at cross country.

The Ethiopian pair are not just great distance runners, they are among the finest sportsmen of their generation.
Having dominated for most of the noughties there is every sign they will do so throughout the "teens" and even into the 2020s.

African countries, worst hit by the effects of climate change, were bullied into a deal that does little to help them

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