Jessica Beshir and the United States Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Global Media Makers

Here's a strange link that I found while researching the Film Independent Spirit Awards ("The premier awards event for the independent film and television community"), for which Beshir received the Truer Than Fiction prize, for which she also received a $25,000 prize money.

A clearer image is at FI's website, in their "Global Media Makers" page, which is not easy to get to, and which I found through serendipity - i.e. simple googling the right combination of words.

What is FI doing working with a "global" project with the United States Government?

I looked up this particular role by the US Gov, and found this:

On November 28th and 29th [2020], the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Film Independent, hosted the Global Media Makers (GMM) Summit in Cairo to celebrate the third year of the distinguished U.S. film mentoring program.

And here are some of the criteria for winning, with more information available here. 

The Office of Citizen Exchanges of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA, or “Bureau”) announces an open competition for the FY 2021 Global Media Makers (GMM) program to conduct an innovative professional development program for film, television, and online episodic content creators from participating countries to enhance their creative skills.

 

[...]

 

This program, like other ECA film program models, seeks to elevate influential voices that are building resilient civil societies by using film, television, and online episodic content to address critical local issues including, but not limited to, freedom of expression, pluralism, tolerance, women’s and youth empowerment.

 

 [...]

 

The goals and outcomes of GMM are to:

- Enable participants to more effectively harness the power of visual storytelling to explore the critical issues confronting their communities;

- Connect participants with a range of U.S. creative, business, and technical leaders through mentorships and other engagement opportunities;

- Help visual storytellers acquire the necessary skills, enabling them to create compelling content for multi-media platforms;

- Establish professional networks by linking participants with each other and with professional leaders in the U.S. entertainment industry;

- Develop business skills and connections necessary to secure film financing and increase market distribution;

- Expose filmmakers to community-based organizations that either provide media-focused training for youth and underserved populations or use film as a tool to promote critical thinking and mutual understanding;

- Showcase films and episodic content and to organize industry panel discussions to promote the exchange of ideas and to create a professional dialogue

So how is a "Film awards organization" connected with the United States goverment's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' Global Media Makers program?

And how does Jessica Beshir who sides with Oromo secessionist groups end up getting the prize money, and award, for a film which purports to talk about drug addiction, but is instead a sly, clever, strategy to send out an "Oromo liberation" message?

I've discussed this in full in my postings - you can search any appropriate words in my "search box" box at the top of the site.

And how did this funding come about just as various ethnic groups are literally fighting in the fields of Ethiopia, some aggressively, to dismantle the running Ethiopian government?

You do the math.