Work-in-Progress screening of Black Lions - Roman Wolves, (Part One - The Scar of Adwa (60 minutes)
Preceded by Dahlak Paradise Precious Places (2020, 11 minutes)

Haile Gerima is an independent filmmaker and professor of film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Born and raised in Ethiopia, Gerima emigrated to the United States in 1967. Following in the footsteps of his father, a dramatist and playwright. Gerima studied acting in Chicago before entering the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, where his exposure to Latin American films inspired him to mine his own cultural legacy. After completing his thesis film, Bush Mama (1975), Gerima received international acclaim with Harvest: 3000 Years (1976), winning the Grand Prize at the Locarno Film Festival.

Black Lions, Roman Wolves is a five-part documentary about Ethiopia’s decisive anti-colonial victory against Italy’s second invasion in 1935, a punitive expedition designed to avenge her defeat at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. The town of Adwa was the site of this battle that called upon young and old to withstand the onslaught of modern weaponry and the rain of mustard gas to defend Ethiopia’s sovereignty. Black Lions, Roman Wolves links these two invasions through collective memory and generational stories, threading themes of resistance, survival, and hope.