Addis Film Festival: Migration Stories

First of its kind in Ethiopia, Addis Film Festival: Migration Stories is an advocacy-based initiative dedicated to promoting the use of films as tools for social change. The film festival, focusing on the experiences of African migrants, was organized in collaboration with WAG Entertainment’s initiative, Addis Film Way, and Generation Africa. Held between April 6th and 9th, the festival included half-day long workshops on the first three days, and the screening of sixteen short films and documentaries (all from African filmmakers) followed by in-depth discussions on the issues displayed in the films. One of the goals of the film festival was to provide insight to the various forms of migration as well as the multi-faceted challenges migrants face on their journeys. In order to do so, the screening sessions were divided according to the focus-areas of the films, such as “Struggles of Integration”, “Gender Rights”, and “Family Separation”. The thematic variety of the documentaries encouraged the audience to discuss the complexity of migration within Africa, and the challenges it poses to both migrants and policy actors.