In October 2009, three South African filmmakers travelled to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to share their knowledge with twenty Ethiopian counterparts enrolled in a three week course sponsored by UNESCO to promote socially responsible filmmaking. Four Ethiopian teams each made a short documentary focused on bridging social divides in Ethiopia and promoting tolerance.

Pascal Schmitz, a South African producer and Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA) board member, had previously lectured a master class in Addis Ababa. He was invited by the Ethiopian Film Initiative (EFI) to assemble a team of experienced professionals with a passion for helping others to better their craft. Director / scriptwriter Damian Armstrong (creative director of the MTN SA Music Awards) and DOP Richard Muller both immediately agreed to the unpaid assignment. They were hosted by the EFI in partnership with Addis Ababa University and Synergy Habesha Film Production.

Pascal’s involvement with training in Ethiopia is only the latest phase of a relationship with the country which goes back nine years. A religious quest as a Rastafarian paradoxically led to him spending time with Ethiopian Orthodox monks, adopting their faith and marrying an Ethiopian. “Basically, I fell in love with the country and although we returned to South Africa I harboured an ambition to make documentaries about Ethiopia.”

With no formal film training and no track record as a producer, it was perhaps inevitable that his 2004 pitch to a Sithengi panel to make a documentary on the monks of Ethiopia did not succeed, so Pascal had to be content with making corporate training videos and below-the-line promotional films via his Johannesburg-based company, Amariam Productions.

In early 2006, his break came in the form of a feature film. “The Ethiopian Orthodox Congregation in Berea knows me very well, and I was approached by members of the community who had an Amharic script they wanted to produce.” After a year of script development and two years gathering finance, shooting began on Adera at week-ends on a very limited budget, funded entirely from private equity sources and deferrals.

“When we started, the Ethiopian film industry was booming in that about half a dozen films were running in their cinemas for up to two years - the demand for new product and the potential for profit was huge." "By the time we finished the film, though, the entire landscape had changed - there were now sixty films on a circuit of only seven screens!”

Several other hard lessons followed in quick succession after the Ethiopian premiere off DVD in December 2008.

“We hardly got any attention at all, because we knew none of the local marketing and promotional tactics - it’s very different from South Africa,” laughs Pascal wryly.

A trip to Addis Ababa in April 2009 to shoot a documentary for the SABC provided an opportunity to relaunch the movie with advice from a local promoter. By then, BluRay technology was in place, and Adera became the first African film to release in cinemas from BluRay.

“This time, we got rave reviews from industry professionals and critics, but the audience didn’t take to the film at all. We discovered that in Ethiopian terms, we’d made an art film,” he laughs uproariously, then reflects: “Our director, Nega Tariku, had lived in South Africa for ten years and had been very influenced by the Western, Hollywood style. Adera doesn’t have a happy ending; it’s a gritty, harsh tragedy about the reality of refugee life in Johannesburg, and Ethiopians face enough harsh reality in their daily lives. Lesson learned.” Pascal laughs again and lectures himself: “Don’t believe hearsay. Research your market and keep up to date.”

He has no regrets though. “We earned the respect of the Ethiopian film industry professionals. They recognise the quality we achieved and are dead keen to match that.”

In return for the marketing contacts, Pascal taught a short Master Class at Addis Ababa University, which in turn led to the recent invitation from the EFI.

The combined profile resulting from Adera and the teaching has led to several requests for collaboration.

Adera may yet find its niche in the international Ethiopian Diaspora. The film has been invited to the London African Film Festival at the end of November 2009, where it will screen alongside other South African entries Gugu and Andile, My Secret Sky, Sea Point Days, Shirley Adams, White Wedding, and Zimbabwe. In December 2009, the film will have a US premiere at the African Diaspora Film Festival in New York.
Digby Young