Joy Keys chats with Ethiopian Filmmaker Yemane Demissie

Yemane I. Demissie is an independent filmmaker who has received numerous national and international grants and fellowships for his work including Best Picture nominee at M-NET’s All Africa Film Awards, the Walter Mosley award for Best Documentary, the Locarno Film Festival Production Grant, the Paulin Vieyra Merit Award for Outstanding Work in the Cinema, and the Fonds Sud Writing Grant. 

Yemane recently completed Dead Weight, a narrative feature and Twilight Revelations: Episodes in the Life & Times of Emperor Haile Selassie, a one-hour documentary for MNET’s seven-part series entitled Great Africans.  His first narrative feature, Tumult screened at over 40 international film festivals.

For the last four years, has been teaching writing and film production in the department of Film and Television at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  Prior to his move to New York City, Yemane taught filmmaking at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and UCLA Extension.