Lights, Camera, Jemuru: Adventures Of A Film-Maker In Ethiopia

by Bob Maddams

Overview

Lights, Camera Jemuru – Adventures of a Film-Maker in Ethiopia is the remarkable true-life story of a high-flying adman who swapped his expense account lifestyle in London to go and teach in a back-street community film school, Gem TV, in Addis Ababa.

Bob Maddams spent ten years living and working in Ethiopia and filming took him and the Gem TV film-makers all over the country, from shanty towns and famine feeding stations to rock hewn churches and the source of the Nile.

Each encounter eroded the Live Aid Image the author had of Ethiopia when he first arrived, to reveal a country of staggering natural beauty, Biblical history, diverse ethnic groups and a culture as rich as the people are poor.

But most of all Lights, Camera, Jemuru is the uplifting story of Gem TV, the young film-makers whose films are transforming the lives of ordinary people all over Ethiopia.

Funny, sad, and moving, Lights, Camera, Jemuru colourfully portrays this most ancient of countries as it struggles to define its place in the modern world.

And for the 400 million people all over the world who watched Live Aid and wondered whatever happened to Ethiopia – it’s a fascinating answer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781908556264
Publisher:	Apostrophe Books Ltd
Publication date:	05/07/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	230
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Bob started out as an advertising copywriter, ending up at Saatchis. Along the way he wrote hundreds of TV commercials for the ‘super soar-away Sun’. After completing the course in Single Camera Drama Directing at the National Film and Television School, he became a freelance Writer-Director and ran his own production company, where he made documentaries for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and National Geographic TV. Later, he joined the Media Trust, an organisation which puts media professionals in touch with charities with communications needs. Shortly afterwards, he found himself in the back streets of Addis Ababa teaching a bunch of ex-street kids at Gem TV, Ethiopia’s only community film school. Bob spent nearly ten years living and working in Ethiopia, and film-making took him all over the country where he came face-to-face with many diverse communities. While in Ethiopia he also worked as a Communications Consultant for many of the international NGOs based in Addis Ababa, including Unicef, UNDP, Oxfam and Womankind. Bob also works as a freelance travel journalist and his articles have won awards and appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Telegraph, the Times, the Independent on Sunday, the Daily Express, the Sun and Wanderlust magazine. While living in Ethiopia he also wrote a column for a national newspaper on developing world issues. Bob now lives in Brighton in the UK, and recently set up Bongo Films, a TV production company, with the Bafta award winning and Oscar nominated documentary film-maker, Kate Blewett. Samples of his travel journalism, photography and short clips of his films, including films made in Ethiopia, can be seen at www.bobmaddams.com.

Read an Excerpt

The children’s faces were pressed so tightly against the floor to ceiling windows that some of their features were ballooned flat against the glass. School children in distinctive red jumpers and sky blue shirts pushed and shoved at each other. I could hear the sounds of their excited screams and laughter muffled by the plate glass.