Experiencing Interruptions?

Emails to My Little Sister

“Emails to My Little Sister” is a film created as part of an MA thesis project concerning the phenomenology of Blackness in Berlin. The film, however, takes place in Ethiopia where becoming Black is reflected back on in siblings' email conversations. The film, a result of an autoethnographic research, explores historical and ongoing relationship between the so- called West and Africa. A brother who lives north of the Mediterranean and a sister south of it discover what that relationship entails and how it affects and shapes their lives.

  • Solomon Mekonen
    Director
  • Solomon Mekonen
    Producer
  • Tsion Abebe Mekonen
    Key Cast
  • Karl Andersson
    Sound and additional footage
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    35 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 8, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    Ethiopia
  • Country of Filming:
    Ethiopia, Germany
  • Language:
    Amharic, English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Freie Universität Berlin
  • AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL 2019
    Leuven
    Belgium
    April 27, 2019
    Selected for YAFMA Award
  • Africa World Documentary Film Festival
    San Diego, California
    United States
    Official Selection
  • The students forum of the freiburger film festival
    Freiburg
    Germany
    May 28, 2019
    Invited
  • Festival International du Film PanAfricain de Cannes
    Cannes
    France
    April 17, 2019
    Official Selection
  • ETNOFILm Festival
    Rovinj
    Croatia
    April 26, 2019
    Invited
  • San Francisco Black Film Festival
    San Francisco
    United States
    June 13, 2019
    Official Selection
  • 14th Ethnographic Films Review Eyes and Lenses
    Warsaw
    Poland
    June 8, 2019
    Selected
  • Vizantrop Festival
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    June 8, 2019
    Winner Student Film
  • Cincinnati African & Asian Diaspora Film Festival
    Cincinnati
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    November 20, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Quetzalcoatl Indigenous International Film Festival [ Film and World Indigenous cultures ]
    Oaxaca
    Mexico
    July 2, 2019
    Official Selection
  • ETNOFF – Student ethnographic film festival
    Skopje
    Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
    October 5, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Africa World Documentary Film Festival
    Port of Spain
    Trinidad and Tobago
    September 18, 2019
    Short Film Audience Choice Winner
  • Africa World Documentary Film Festival
    Stellenbosch
    South Africa
    August 2, 2019
  • iAfrica Film Festival
    The Hague
    Netherlands
    October 6, 2019
    Invited
  • GIEFF – The 15th German (Göttingen) International Ethnographic Film Festival
    Göttingen
    Germany
    May 13, 2020
    Official Selection
  • The 29th International Festival of Ethnological Film in Belgrade
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    October 13, 2020
    Invited
  • The 29th International Festival of Ethnological Film
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    October 13, 2020
    Winner Best Student Film
  • Ethnografische Filmtage, Universität Bremen
    Bremen
    Germany
    December 1, 2020
    Invited
  • Ethnologisches Filmfestival der Universität Trier
    Trier
    Germany
    January 25, 2021
    Invited
  • 17th RAI Film Festival 2021
    Online
    United Kingdom
    March 19, 2021
  • Afrika Film Festival Köln
    Köln
    Germany
    September 17, 2021
    The Audience Award for Best short Film
Director Biography - Solomon Mekonen

Solomon Mekonen is a PhD research fellow at the department of anthropology, University of Oslo, interested in visual storytelling grounded in anthropology. He has a master’s degree in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. His research interests include decolonisation, gender and sexuality studies and imagining alternative futures.

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Director Statement

Coming to terms with the fact that I have been 'cornered', as it were, and ‘forced’ to recognise myself as a racialised being with a whole new 'identity' that hardly allowed any sort of individuality or locality after I came to Berlin, this film is my attempt to make sense of the thought process that went into my understanding of the phenomenology of Blackness.