BY MULUGETA GUDETA
With the exception of Hollywood in the United States, Bollywood in India and Nolywood in Nigeria, almost all countries in the world that have a film industry worthy of the name have not been able to develop their own filmmaking cultures. Even China with its huge investments in its budding film industry could not develop something remotely similar to “Choniwood” simply because the industry is largely controlled by US studios that are keen to develop their styles and cultures within the Chinese context.
Ethiopia is no exception. Although more than eight decades have passed since the first film was produced in this country, the industry has been sluggish in its if not stagnating for many decades. It was only in the last twenty years or so that the industry has started to make baby steps while robust growth is still a remote possibility. The development of an authentically Ethiopian film business with its own styles, themes, scripts and investment is even beyond our wildest imagination.
The trouble is that the general tendency in matters of arts, as well as in other aspects of public life, in this country is to imitate foreign models rather than doing things in the Ethiopian way. This is the case in almost all artistic endeavours. This approach can also be seen in other forms of arts like music, painting or the other visual arts like films. It is naturally easier to copy foreign models than searching one’s original roots. There are indeed many things we can learn from foreign experiences. We are not expected to reinvent the wheel every time we try to produce a piece of art.
Even if unsuccessful, the attempt to make films the Western way or the American way is deeply ingrained in the minds of our filmmakers. One reason for this is that most, if not all, of the movie makers grew up watching Western movies or they have not received proper education in cinematography or they are so focused on making whatever kind of films as long as they are commercially successful and help them make money and bring fame. Even the way film awards are organized in this country remind us of Hollywood’s Oscars, Cannes or some other Western award ceremony.
In many countries around the world and in the main centres of the global film industries, film festivals precede award ceremonies for best actors, producers, directors…etc. It is during these festivals, that are often annual events, that the best films and actors are selected by juries of professionals and distribution rights are granted for companies. It is also there that the potential award winners are identified and become the buzz of the film world. The Cannes film festival is a famous European venue for new films and performing actors who would later go into the nominations as best film or best actors. The Bafta is also another venue.
Since the onset of the global pandemic last year, the film industry in the world in general and in Ethiopia in particular has been negatively affected as movie theatres were closed and movie making has become hazardous as close contacts between people was identified as one way the virus can spread. Many international film projects have been shelved as a result and major festivals took place via virtual technology. The European film festival was an annual cultural events here in Addis Ababa but it has been shelved since the onset of the pandemic.
In the past, the coincidence between the Ethiopian Gumma Awards ceremony and that of the American Oscars may look accidental but the conduct of the Gumma Awards leaves no doubt in anybody’s mind that it is generally an unsuccessful reproduction of the Hollywood or western version. The timing of the two awards was also interesting. Both usually took place almost in the same week, and that the Gumma Awards ceremony usually followed the Oscars version to the last detail. As we said that was in the past. How about this year’s Gumma Awards?
As it could be expected, the award ceremony this year has lost its past attractions. The attendance was smaller than the last award and the films that received the awards were generally unimpressive compared to those that were presented during the last six Gumma awards. The imitation of foreign styles and etiquettes was however unchanged.
The red carpet is the first eye-catching part of the decor on which well-dressed and good-looking men young men and women walk to the hall where the award ceremony took place. On both sides of the carpet, our home-grown “paparazzi” were busy taking pictures of the celebrities who strode along with the demeanour worthy of Hollywood stars whom they try to emulate.
The Gumma Award has entered its seventh year and the stars, film producers, directors and the entire crew that were present at the ceremony are almost all the same people who featured on previous occasions. This is also true for the films that are selected as winners. The actors, directors and producers and even the guest are familiar individuals who often feature on TV channels and during similar occasions.
It is as if the industry is controlled or influenced by the same people who appear year after year with almost similar films with almost similar themes and stories. New faces and budding talents do not seem to get the attention they so eagerly seek. The audience might get fed up seeing the same faces with the same names at the awards almost every year.
The similarities between the formats of the Hollywood awards and those here in Addis Ababa end here. Trying to imitate Hollywood in every aspect of the film making business is of course impossible if not a challenge as insurmountable as climbing Ras Dasshen, the highest peak in Ethiopia.
One cannot of course blame the current generation of filmmakers for all the ills or shortcoming the industry is suffering from. There is of course no precedence or local tradition for the Gumma Awards organizers to base their new experience. However, a little sense of creative independence or some degree of inventiveness could have told them that there could be an authentically Ethiopian way of celebrating the occasion.
The fact that the awards took place in the old grand National Theatre, a dinosaur from the imperial period, might be justified as the first Ethiopian modern film, Guma, was first staged in the same hall forty years ago, according to the organizers who paid tribute to Michel Papatakis, the director of the film now in his eighties and was present at the launching of the Gumma Awards ceremony a few years back with the dignity and sense of importance befitting his age and achievement.
Various awards ceremonies take place across the world. The award ceremonies have their own identities and histories so does the Ethiopian film industry which is now barely struggling to be born with its own identity or features. Although Hollywood’s influence in the international film industry is obvious, there is no need to imitate the American model when it comes to awards celebrations because they reflect American values and traditions that are a far cry from African or Ethiopian culture.
Most Ethiopian film makers seem to find inspiration from Hollywood and this is not basically a bad thing. But to imitate the American film tradition when it comes to the awards ceremonies looked a little bit a sign of shallowness on the part of the organizers of the Gumma Awards. They should rather come up with their original version or establish a new and authentically Ethiopian tradition of celebrating if not making movies. From the hugging to the costume of the award winning actors, from the speeches the winners made to the audience to the way they celebrated their glory, everything unnecessarily looked like a replica of the Oscar ceremonies.
The main challenge for our filmmakers is however to try to tell authentically Ethiopian stories than imitating Hollywood. We often see that even in Hollywood, technologically overcharged blockbusters are not always the winners. A few years back , the best Hollywood film was neither the technology triggered “Gravity” or the thriller that depicted the end of the American Dream in the form of “The Wolf of Wall Street” but a simple, beautiful and deeply historical account of slavery in America in the 19th century, namely “Twelve Years of Slavery”. This should give much food to the thought to our filmmakers. Instead of trying to imitate Hollywood manners and mores, they should try to think seriously about the themes that go into making great movies.
Ethiopian filmmakers have certainly a lot of historical materials or themes to base their films on instead of trying to imitate the worst features of Hollywood, namely the romantic soap operas and cheap sentimental stories or romantic comedies that have unfortunately becomes the rage or fixation of both filmmakers and moviegoers. Why do they fruitlessly lose so much creative juice on imitating what is inimitable instead of searching for their authentic and originally Ethiopian voices?
Local filmmakers should therefore take this year’s Gumma Awards ceremony as a starting point for making a new start as far as producing authentically local films and refocusing their camera lenses both metaphorically and literally. I don’t think that the audience will forever tolerate their wrestling with cliché themes and repetitive styles. In this sense, the next Guma Awards ceremony can be expected to be an occasion for celebrating domestic creativity both in terms celebration and the winning films.
The organizers of Gumma Awards will certainly have enough time to move away from the copy-paste Hollywood model and start the journey to self-discovery and self- expression that are the mark or the foundations of an authentically Ethiopian film tradition. For now, the organizers and the movie community should be commended for the energy and enthusiasm they displayed at the Gumma Awards that heralded the birth of a local film industry with all the birth defects and shortcomings that such an initiative inevitably faces. Their mistakes, misconceptions and misdemeanours in their courageous endeavours should serve as lessons for the future. As the saying has it, you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs.
The Ethiopian Herald April 15/2021
