Yemane Demissie

Demissie’s Academy project was a documentary series on the efforts of three generations of Western-educated Ethiopians to transform their country from a medieval empire into a modern state. Culling, juxtaposing, and configuring the narratives, reflections, and visual archives of the more than 300 individuals interviewed for the series, along with primary material from numerous archives, the documentary analyzes the visions, experiments, and outcomes of the pioneers’ engagement with modernity. During the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I, European colonial powers, supplanted by the US and Soviet Union, determined the destinies of the majority of African, Asian, and South American countries. Rare was a nation able to maintain its sovereignty and engineer its transformation while cultivating strong political ties with Western, Eastern, and Non-Aligned blocs. The Quantum Leapers: Ethiopia 1916-1975 examines this revolution through the narratives of its many architects and builders, beneficiaries and victims, apologists and critics.