Faya Dayi is coming to Toronto at a Toronto International Film Festival Bell Lightbox event - but for one showing only! Beshir will also be there, according to this communique:
Kazik Radwanski, the co-founder, MDFF (Medium Density Fibreboard Films - whatever that means), presents Faya Dayi thus:
The film abandons traditional structures, zig-zagging through a labyrinth of images that document the harvesting of this euphoria-inducing stimulant, and the mythology and rituals surrounding it. Beshir’s own beautifully crafted black-and-white cinematography ensures a visual journey that needs to be experienced in the cinema.
There we are again with that allusion to outer-body experience...
And MDFF tells us that they are a
...showcase of the world’s best, most challenging, and most provocative new international cinema.
The one-day-screening ad quotes from Variety to remind us that
“[Faya Dayi] is an immersive success, as the languid rhythms of the filmmaking mirror the woozy impact of the drug, while a storytelling style that flickers casually between observational verité and esoteric myth-building suggests an in-and-out grasp on reality” (Variety).
No euphemisms here on "filmmaking [that mirrors] the woozy impact of the drug..."
Khat is now directly referenced as a "drug..." something which I've said since the beginning of my Faya Dayi reviews and critics. The next question, which I will leave to future reviews (if they ever do occur) is: was Beshir "woozy [on the] impact of the drug" as she shot her film?
I guess TIFF (next festival in September 2022) has some obligation to this film, to whose directer (Beshir) it provided some financial support and training:
Jessica Beshir is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker born in Mexico City and raised in Ethiopia. She made her directorial debut with the short film Hairat (16), which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Her short film He Who Dances on Wood (16) premiered at the 2017 Hot Docs Film Festival. Most recently she directed Heroin (17), which made its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Currently, Beshir is working on her first feature documentary set in Ethiopia and developing her first feature narrative.Talent Lab participation supported by The Consulate General of Mexico in Toronto.
To:Jeffrey Remedios, Jennifer Baichwal, Asha Daniere, Mary DePaoli, Danis Goulet, Wes Hall, Tawfik Hammoud, Betty-Ann Heggie, Allen Lau, Devorah Lithwick, Laurie May, Leslie Noble, Kevin Ulrich, Mark Wellings, Michael Worb, William Marshall, Dusty Cohl, Henk Van der Kolk, Martin P. Connell, Colin D. Watson, Jonathan H. Slan, Allan Gregg, Sidney M. Oland, Brendan Calder, Allen Karp, Paul Atkinson, Lisa de Wilde, Jennifer Tory, Cameron Bailey, Douglas Allison, Rachel Barclay, Tianna Fischer, Jeff Wright, Charlotte Vincer, Lauren Coughlan, Dan Montgomery, Kazik Radwanski:I am writing about Faya Dayi in Toronto, Beshir's Canadian presentation of her documentary film.Please review my published article in Ethiopian publication sites, as well as my commentary on her film.This is the backstory that Beshir and her supporting agencies will not present to you.Here is my relevant posting, with additional links attached, including publications in Ethiopian and North American-based online magazines on current affairs regarding Ethiopian events and news.Sincerely,Kidist Paulos Asrat,
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And a letter I wrote to one of Toronto's Ethiopian community media sites:
Dear Mr. W...:
I am an artist and writer of Ethiopian origin from the Greater Toronto Area (Mississauga).I follow art and cultural events both in and out of Ethiopia.You may be aware of a recent film that was first introduced at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2021, and which was screened in Europe and the United States. It was also shown in Vancouver. And now it will be in Toronto on March 17, 2022.The film is Faya Dayi, by Jessica Beshir [an] Ethiopian-Mexican. Beshir's background is actually an Oromo father and a Mexican mother. She grew up in Harar, then moved to Mexico, and now lives in New York.The film presents itself as a film on khat, and about the problems it is causing the Ethiopian Oromo youth in the region. Recently, Ethiopia's PM Abiy started major rehabilitation projects to help these khat-addicted youth.Faya Dayi is now coming for a one day presentation on March 17, 2022, at the Toronto International Film Festival.I am not sure how much the Toronto and surrounding Ethiopian community is aware of this film, but I believe that the film is masking itself as a "anti-khat" film, when in fact it does promote the drug in a "religious" and "social" context.But beyond that, it is a subversive, political film, in which Beshir cleverly promotes Oromo secessionists (both online and on the ground).For more detail, and arguments, please read the article I have published describing this film, and Beshir's intentions:
My article was published in the Ethiopian online magazines: Borkena, ZeHabesha, Addis Insight and Ethiopia 360. It generated a high number of "likes".Please consider it for publication in your paper, and to give the Ethiopian population, of all ethnicities, a warning on the films deceptive and subversive nature. And also to inform them that Faya Dayi will be in Toronto on March 17, for a one-time screening at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF. I suggest they boycott the film, and pass on this information.Sincerely,Kidist Paulos Asrat