Sincerely Ethiopia Exclusive London Screening Review

On Saturday 6th September 2014 five London based Ethiopian Organisations got together to host the Exclusive London Screening of Sincerely Ethiopia documentary.  The event was organised by Ethiopian Association of Students & Youth in the UK (EASYUK) plus media partners Ethio Beauty and TETV. alongside partners Stop the Violence - UK and Ethiopian Engineers Society -UK.

Sincerely Ethiopia is a documentary that aims to balance out the negative portrayal of Ethiopia in the media. By examining the lives of ordinary people in Ethiopia who are addressing these challenges. The documentary encompassed everything from philanthropy, art, business, fashion, and healthcare as different avenues that are changing lives of countless Ethiopians. With their aim of telling stories and showcasing the beauty of people overcoming odds to make a change in their country in this generation! Directed by Ethiopia/American Nathan Araya and produced by Hellen Kassa.

The screening had in attendance a host of individuals from both the Ethiopian Community as well as a diverse group with an interest in topics regarding Africa. Impressively enough the majority of people arrived on time, which meant we were not running on BPT (Black people timing). So with pop corn and drinks in hand we kicked off our exclusive screening.

Sincerely, Ethiopia is an emotional documentary and a documentary which got many people talking with mainly positive feedback as well as some negative ones. Which was great as we had 4 post screening workshops prepared for this purpose. But before that we had a little ice breaker game of musical chairs prepared. I can tell you one thing it's not easy playing this game with up to 140 chairs. Surprisingly it was the men that were the most competitive leaving 4 lucky winners of our ice breaker.

Now everyone was warmed up and ready to continue the day with our debate and discussions we followed with workshops which allowed people to discuss and debate key tops from the documentary. I ran the Dire Dawa workshop named after my birth town in Ethiopia. My workshop group examined whether the Sincerely Ethiopia team had achieved their aim.

We would like to shout out our sponsors Ethiopian Airlines who kindly donated an amazing raffle give away which was a free ticket to anywhere in Africa, which was won by the very lucky Sereya. Our 4 winners from the muscial chairs ice-breaker won Focus Ethiopia and Focus Africa courtesy of Focus Organisation.

The day ended on a high with really good comments we hope to do more events like this so watch this space. 

 “We were honored to be media partner for the screening, it allows us to continue our work in not only promoting the talents of creative Ethiopians, but also to continue to show the other side of Ethiopia and Africa'' Ethio Beauty.