Salem Mekuria

Salem Mekuria is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and an independent film producer, writer, director from Ethiopia, based in Boston.

She is the writer, producer, director of:

Ye Wonz Maibel (Deluge), 1997: a one hour personal essay on history, conflict, loss and reconciliation. Told through a first person narrative it explores the momentous events which took place in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991. Awards: First Place NBPC's Prized Pieces '97; Director's Citation, Black Maria Film & Video Festival, '97. International screenings: African Film Now, Toronto; Deutches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt; the Contemporary African Diaspora Film Festival, New York; CinemaAfrica, Zurich; the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa; African Film Festival, Tokyo; Festival of African Cinema, FESPACO, Burkina Faso; Urban World Film Festival, NY; the Fourth International Women's Film Festival, Minsk, Belarus; the Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA; Oakland Musuem, Oakland, CA; the 4th Annual International Festival of Women's Cinema, Boston; the Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles,; and the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

SIDET: Forced Exile, 1991, is a documentary profiling three Ethiopian/Eritrean refugee women in the Sudan. Filmed on location in the Sudan and completed in 1991. Awards: the Silver Apple in the National Educational Film & Video Festival, '93; Honorable Mention, 7th Annual Atlanta Film & Video Festival, '93; First Place in the National Black Programming Consortium's Prized Pieces '92; Outstanding Independent Film in the New England Film & Video Festival '92; and Juror's Citation '91. Funded by the UN Development Program for Women, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and produced in association with and broadcast by Channel Four TV in England and WDR in Germany.

As I Remember It-A Portrait of Dorothy West, 1991, is a portrait of veteran Harlem Renaissance writer, Dorothy West. Broadcast on WGBH Public Television in Boston, September, 1991. Awards: CPB's Gold Award for local programming; First Place, Non-Fiction Category, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; Honorable Mention, the National Black Programming's Prized Pieces; and was nominated for an Emmy.

Our Place In The Sun, 1988, a 30 minutes video portrait of the Black community on Martha's Vineyard Island. Broadcast on WGBH-TV in February 1988, it was nominated for an Emmy.

As I Remember It
A film by Salem Mekuria, 1991, 56 min., Color
This intimate portrait of writer Dorothy West explores the forgotten role of women in the Harlem Renaissance. From the perspective of her 83 years, th...

Sidet: Forced Exile
A film by Salem Mekuria, 1991, 60 min., Color
During the past two decades, more than two million refugees have left Ethiopia. Famine, poverty and political strife as well as the religious persecut...