David Mesfin © 2000

Not since we camped out all night to buy katanga tickets for a concert by the "Chiret formerly known as Prince" have we at SELEDA been more enthusiastic about any thing, project, person or million-dollar word than are we are about www.ethiopianfilms.com.

As we approach the end of an entire year since we first dusted off a tattered "How to Make Them Spiffy Web Page Thing-a-ma-Bobs for Dummies" book, thumbed through it, and brought you SELEDA Version 0.001, we realize that we've been enthused before, but maybe never this giddy with glee. Nor have we ever had a clearer raison d'être than right at this juncture, particularly since we've recently learned to bandy about expressions in français, n'est pas?

So, yadda, yadda… connecting to back home… yadda… yadda… healing old wounds… and then finally, "Where's the beef?"

Well, this ain't your grandfather's beef… this is ye Borena QurT sigga with ye Harer senga CHoma added to boot. Let us introduce you to ethiopianfilms.com, a site set up to "support and promote" Ethiopian films. It is a new venture, a leap of faith, a strong voice for proving, once and for all, that the "dir" that is the Ethiopian Diaspora can indeed "maber".

Entuff! Entuff! Inkuwn le Qum neger aderesen…

The idea is simple, the plan ingenious, and the belief in our community admirable. ethiopianfilms.com has launched a website where the film-maker/writer duo of Yemane I. Demissie and Solomon Deressa share with us the details of their upcoming film, and invite us to be patrons of the arts. Now we at SELEDA have never shied away from patronizing anyone (ask anyone ill-advised enough to send us mail), so we agreed to give it a go, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to help launch this endeavor.

The arts chronicle our history. They will tell our grandchildren that we took their legacy seriously. And the arts are where we can launch the SELEDA Cocktail hour, so you see why we are all delirious about this. ethiopianfilms.com aims to produce films that will tell our stories, the million of them hidden in the crevices of history. And wouldn't it be great to actually not have a some willy-nilly ferenji director saying, "But I don't wanna have an Ethiopian actor play that part… how about Tom Hanks… if he got a really deep tan?"

…and then the rains return is the first feature film slated for production by ethiopianfilms.com The screenplay was written by esachew, kiburinetachew Ato Solomon Deressa, the ye-hiwot CHora of SELEDAites, who bow in deference every time we utter his name sotto voce. The film is directed by Blatengeta Yemane I. Demissie of Gir-Gir/Tumult fame, who graced our pages in the December issue of SELEDA. (The levelheaded producers would not let us near the script lest we got tempted to whip out our red pens and insert Amari-English-isims into early 20th century dialogue.)

The story is set in 1918 Ethiopia, around two families who struggle to survive the Spanish influenza, the most devastating pandemic in human history. It is a story of a community's will to survive, of holding on to hope, of finding peace of mind and love in the midst of pestilence, and of letting go. (Our idea of adding a chase scene in there somewhere is being, er, "carefully considered" by the prudent producers.)

SELEDA deeply salutes ethiopianfilms.com and the 2,000 Club, its fundraising campaign. Two thousand of us raising our voices. Doable? Absolutely! (And we hope at least 1527 of them come from SELEDA readers since we are in the middle of, er, backroom negotiations for a 25% …30% cut.) Think about it--with a little money (the equivalent of a week's worth of lattés at Starbucks, or a trip to that trendy new barber in DC, or a piece of enticing lingerie at ye'intina misTir), you too can say you've contributed to a film that is sure to be more engulfing than Titanic, more romantic than Ghost (without those evil megagnas), more devastating than Hurricane, and altogether as enticing as Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct when she uncrossed…ahem… besmeab… where were we?

Oh, and SELEDA editors promise to out themselves to the first 10 people spotted wearing a 2,000 Club T-shirt. Please, no foul language and looming "Qoi bicha" threats above our heads.

Be heard! Usher in a new era! Go to www.ethiopianfilms.com.