{"id":10553,"date":"2020-08-26T23:23:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T21:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=10553"},"modified":"2020-08-26T23:35:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T21:35:05","slug":"ethiopian-film-finding-sally-has-african-premiere-at-encounters-durban-international-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2020\/08\/26\/ethiopian-film-finding-sally-has-african-premiere-at-encounters-durban-international-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian Film “Finding Sally” has African Premiere At Encounters & Durban International Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

August and September will be a period for Ethiopian filmmaker, Tamara Mariam Dawit, who has the African premiere of her documentary Finding Sally, at Encounters International Documentary Film Festival (20-30 August) and the Durban International Film Festival (10-20 September), and she is pitching her latest film project, Mehal Sefari, at the finance forum in the 11th Durban FilmMart (4 -13 September).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding Sally is a haunting film that unravels a secret held by her aunts, that leads her through the tortured recent history of an ancient country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara Mariam Dawit knew she had an unusual collection of aunts in Ethiopia, her estranged father\u2019s sisters. Gregarious and independent, they were painters, teachers, aid-workers, even a talk show host. They\u2019d been upper-class children of a diplomat, at the worst time to be upper-class Ethiopians \u2013 amid the end of the ancient monarchy of Emperor Haile Selassie in the early \u201870s, the chaos of a military dictatorship and a civil war between self-proclaimed Communists<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there\u2019d been another sister about whom she knew virtually nothing. She would discover that Selamawit \u2013 known as Sally \u2013 had been a 23-year-old member of the Ethiopian People\u2019s Revolutionary Party. She\u2019d gone from being a vivacious, social and politically engaged student at Ottawa\u2019s Carleton University to a fugitive on the Ethiopian government\u2019s most-wanted list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding Sally is Dawit\u2019s uncovering of a generation of horror, fueled by her own family\u2019s history of survival mode. It begins with Dawit\u2019s arrival in the capital of Addis Ababa, and face-to-face revelations from her aunts about their once glamourous life and the fraught existence of ostensible \u201ccounter-revolutionaries\u201d like their father (who was a godson of the emperor himself).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And through it, all Sally\u2019s story shone. Of her sisters, she was the most charismatic, the one who fell in love most easily, the one whose heart literally led her to embrace Ethiopia\u2019s political fever and even marry an EPRP commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sally\u2019s story unfolds alongside that of \u201cThe Red Terror,\u201d a half-million deaths, most of them young people, representing the decimation of a generation under the ruthless crackdown of the country\u2019s military leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it also is a story of the resilience of family, of Sally\u2019s efforts to protect her sisters from her choice, of their interrogations in rooms with blood-spattered walls, and of the hope that such bonds can remain strong even as Ethiopia\u2019s status as a democracy remains fragile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a child, I grew up hearing stories from my vibrant Ethiopian aunts,\u201d Dawit says, \u201ctales about their grandmother helping the war effort against the Italians, hitchhiking in Europe, lavish cocktail parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut lost in all their stories was Sally, whom no one ever mentioned to me. It wasn\u2019t until my early thirties that I stumbled upon a photo of Sally, but the family was hesitant to talk about her. Little by little, I managed to convince my grandmother and then my aunts to share Sally\u2019s story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe film poses the question that arises when someone you love disappears without a trace: how do you cope? It explores not only how my family has managed loss, but how the country has managed the loss, pain, and trauma of the Red Terror. My family is just one of many still dealing with those deaths, after fear of public mourning under the military government forced so many to suffer in silence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interesting link to South Africa, is that the score of Finding Sally is composed by South African- Canadian Musician Zaki Ibrahim (Polaris and Juno nominated) and blends Ethiopian musical styles with Zaki\u2019s own retro-Afrofuturist style. Recorded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with renowned Ethiopia producer Abegasu Shiota Zaki\u2019s voice is included throughout the score as a representation of Sally\u2019s presence in the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding Sally is written and directed by Tamara Mariam Dawit, produced by Isabelle Couture and executive produced by Katarina Soukup for Catbird Films (Canada). In association with documentary Channel, with the financial support of the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Arts Council, and the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit. It is distributed in Canada by Cinema Politica and represented internationally by Rise & Shine in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.Joint African Premiere at Encounters International South African Documentary Film Festival: August 20 to 30, 2020 encounters.co.za<\/a> on Sat 22nd Aug \/ 8.30pm (GMT +2) followed by a Q&A with Dawit @ 9.50pm (GMT+2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Screenings: at Durban International Film Festival
September 10 to 20, 2020 ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za<\/a> (Dates to be confirmed)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n