‘It’s Not Easy To Start Over In A New Place’

The main objective of Addis International Film Festival (AIFF) is to promote films that bring awareness to major local and global issues in Addis Ababa and other major cities of Ethiopia. The theme of 12th Edition of AIFF is ‘’It’s Not Easy To Start Over In A New Place’ to put the spotlight on the current global issue of ‘displacement’ from all four corners of the world due to war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, natural disasters, environmental changes, famine, political conflicts, economic reasons, etc.

This year’s edition of AIFF will bring to Addis and other major cities of Ethiopia over 65 local and international thought provoking, entertaining and memorable films set across screens at the Italian Cultural Institute, Hager Fikir Theatre and Addis Ababa City Administration Theatre. The Festival will also recognize young Ethiopian filmmakers and women Ethiopian filmmakers by showcasing their short and feature films.

With its 2nd edition the Addis Video Art Festival continues to create a dialogue between local, and international artists by encouraging digital media culture. It will take place between 24 December and 3 January and will screen throughout Addis Ababa in a variety of locations including street corners, rooftops, public centers and art centers.

The international festival intends to provide a platform for innovative video art in Ethiopia and by sharing video art in both conventional and non-conventional settings, the festival will reach both the artist community and the everyday passerby. In the selection of works chosen for the second edition of the festival, the theme of love triangle appears in many manifestations from the intimately personal to the socio-political-environmental to the cosmic. The videos portray a sense of time that is liquid in its survey of the present moment, but in the end, moves steadfastly forward. The migrations amongst various geographies portrayed in the works correlate to various timelines as well. This is very fitting to the location of the festival in Ethiopia as it follows the Julian calendar, which is 8 years behind the Gregorian calendar, creating a new terrain of time altogether.

While the mechanics of triangulation has uses in politics, psychology, social sciences, and in the interpersonal politics of love, the essential method is always the same: by converging measurements taken from two distinct points, a more confident result is found, validating the data, be it time, space, or people, from the perspective of multiple observers. In this way, the complexity of the human experience is portrayed more accurately. However, triangulation also points out absences as space is filled from all sides in a balancing act that correlates to the other sides, one can easily find what is not contributing to the whole.

The festival will show works by Alban Wady El Neel, Mohamad El-Hadidi, Mulugeta Gebrekidan, Marie-Frnace Giaraudon, Martha Haile, Edgar Endress, Shahar Marcus & Nezaket, Helina Metaferia, Caroline Koss, Michael Macgarry, Suzanne Wawra, Onyinye Alheri Nigeria, Meike Redeker, Ng’endo Mukii, Eyal Segal, Yacob Bizuneh, Jacob Podbler and Wala & Kush and a guest program with “Video Art from Iceland” curated by Erin Honeycutt and featuring the artists Kristín Scheving, Sigurður Guðjónsson, Dagrún Aðalsteinnsdóttir, Dodda Maggy, Ásdis Sif Gunnarsdóttir, Logi Leo Gunnarsson and Rakel Jonsdottir.

Please find the full program and more information here.