Ethiopia's homegrown and award winning film producer, Lucy Gebregziabher
talks to us about her career, her award winning short film 'At The
Second Traffic
Light' and Ethiopia's fledgling film industry.
Bitten by the love of film at a young age, Lucy Gebregziabher is a professional filmmaker who lives in Virginia,
USA. “I used to love going to the movies. At the time I was just a consumer of films but the love of films stayed with
me.” Lucy says explaining her attraction to film while she was still a girl in Ethiopia. After moving to the US for college, Lucy
attended Wilson College where she majored in Journalism and International Relations. Moving to Washington DC reawakened her interest in
film eventually resulting in her enrollment at Howard University for a Master’s Program in Film.
At The Second Traffic Light
Lucy has in some ways gravitated towards short films since her
graduation from film school and her best known of the genre is the 25 minute feature entitled “At The Second Traffic Light.”
The film gives a message of unity and hope in a world of great diversity. So much so that it has been adopted for extensive use as a
diversity training tool in the US for corporate and government programs. When asked to reveal the inspiration behind the film Lucy
explains, “Primarily my experience as a human being living in the US. We have a lot in common as human beings, what would happen if
we focus on our similarities as human beings.”
The concept of this film was triggered when Lucy one day found
herself at a traffic light where she observed a Puerto Rican, African American and Caucasian American driver all swerve suddenly to avoid
hitting a pigeon that had appeared on the street. “Here we are so different in our ethnic backgrounds but we took the same
instinctual step to save a life.”
While Lucy was screening the film, diversity trainers approached her and asked if
she would be open for her film to be used in support of diversity training for companies. Lucy decided to look into it so a friend of hers
developed a facilitator’s guide for the film. She then was invited to the State Department to screen it and from then on diversity
trainers would hear about it by word of mouth and use it for diversity training.
Coming Home
At the present time Lucy is working on a feature length film which she wrote. She is in the process of
finalizing the film which will be shot in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The English title of the film is “A Simple Story in a Not So Simple
World.” Or “Timhert ina godana” in Amharic.
Lucy’s films have been at various international
film festivals. Her fourth film, Wety’s Poem was shown at domestic festivals in the US and others have been screened in film
festivals in Rome, London and Stockholm. The most gratifying experience for Lucy to date was at the Fespaco Film Festival in 2001 where
her own film, Wety’s Poem, was selected for competition. Fespaco is the biggest African film festival and Lucy was the only
Ethiopian filmmaker present there then.
According to Lucy, things have and haven’t changed when it comes to being a
female filmmaker today compared to the recent past. “You don’t compare to male filmmakers, it’s a rarity.”
Obviously the number of male filmmakers far exceeds that of females. “But for me, I don’t look at the possible disadvantages
as a problem, its not an issue. I’m not denying that it’s a male dominated field worldwide. But its not the filmmakers
gender or race, it’s the content of the film and its cinematic value.”
Perspective on Ethiopian Film
When asked about the Ethiopian film industry, Lucy points out that it is not yet strong
enough to be called an industry in Ethiopia. “There is movement in the area but cinematically we are not there yet.” Lucy
explains. She says that there are no schools with strong film curriculums so there is no opportunity to really study film. According
to her, one needs to study film analysis, criticism, lighting, cinematography and more to really know the field. “Ethiopia is
exposed more to theatre which is very different. You have to exaggerate in theatre. In film you have to pretend because you need to
look as though you are not acting. There is a lot of exaggeration in acting in Ethiopian films and the sound quality is low. Having said
all this there is so much creativity and humor but it would be good if there was a good film school.”
Hey,luciye, how are you hope all is well, heard from Hassan , that you are back home,looking forward to see you soon....I am so so proud of you give my love to all family and friends, always yours,Lula M.Birhan
