Ethiopia

Haile Gerima is an independent filmmaker and professor of film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Born and raised in Ethiopia, Gerima emigrated to the United States in 1967. Following in the footsteps of his father, a dramatist and playwright, Gerima studied acting in Chicago before entering the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where his exposure to Latin American films inspired him to mine his own cultural legacy. He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. After completing his thesis film, Bush Mama (1975), Gerima received international acclaim with Harvest: 3000 Years (1976), an Ethiopian drama that won the Grand Prize at the Locarno film festival. His 1993 epic, Sankofa, a formally ambitious tale of a plantation slave revolt was ignored by U.S. distributors, but Gerima tapped into African American communities, and booked sold-out screenings in independent theaters around the country. In 1996, Gerima founded the Sankofa Video and Bookstore in Washington, DC., a cultural and intellectual space that offers opportunities for self-expression, interaction, discussion and analysis through community events such as film screenings, book signings, scholar forums and artist showcases. Gerima continues to distribute and promote his own films, including his festival success, Teza (2008), which won the Jury and Best Screenplay awards at the Venice Film Festival. He also lectures and conducts workshops in alternative screenwriting and directing both within the U.S. and internationally.

Filmography

Hour Glass (1971)
Child of Resistance (1973)
Mirt Sost Shi Amit / Harvest: 3,000 Years (1976)
Wilmington 10 – U.S.A. 10,000 (1979)
Bush Mama (1979)
Ashes and Embers (1982)
After Winter: Sterling Brown (1985)
Sankofa (1993)
Imperfect Journey (1994)
Adwa: An African Victory (1999)
Teza (2008)