How a strong creative industry helps economies thrive Mehret Mandefro
Transcriber: Joseph Geni
Reviewer: Camille Martínez
Woman: Doc? We’re ready for you.
Mehret Mandefro: OK.
Man 1: Here we go. Places, please.
Last looks.
Man 2: We’re at roll time.
Man 3: Rolling!
Man 2: Roll cameras.
Man 3: A speed, B speed, C speed.
Man 1: Marker. And … action.
MM: I started making movies 15 years ago,
during my internal medicine residency,
as one does.
I was doing HIV disparities research
amongst Black women,
and that work turned into a documentary,
and I’ve been making movies ever since.
I like to think of the movies
and shows I create
as a kind of visual medicine.
By that I mean I try to put
stories on the screen
that address large social barriers,
like racism in America,
gender inequities in Ethiopia
and global health disparities.
And it’s always my hope that audiences
leave inspired to take actions
that will help people
hurdle those barriers.
Visual medicine.
Most of the time,
I live and work in Ethiopia,
the country I was born in,
and currently,
I sit on the advisory council
of the Ethiopian Government’s
Jobs Creation Commission.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering
what a doctor-turned-filmmaker,
not economist,
is doing working with
the Jobs Creation Commission.
Well, I believe the creative industries,
like film and theater,
design and even fashion,
can promote economic growth
and democratic ideals in any country.
I’ve seen it happen,
I’ve helped it happen,
and I’m here to tell you
a little bit more.
But first, some context.
Over the past 15 years,
Ethiopia has had
amongst the fastest-growing economies
in the world.
This growth has led
to a reduction in poverty.
But according to 2018 numbers,
unemployment rates in urban areas
is around 19 percent,
with higher unemployment rates
amongst youth ages 15 to 29.
No surprise, those numbers
are even higher among young women.
Like the rest of Africa,
Ethiopia’s population is young,
which means as the urban
labor market continues to grow,
people are aging into the workforce,
and there aren’t enough jobs to go around.
So put yourselves
in the shoes of any government
struggling to create enough
good-paying jobs for a growing population.
What do you do?
I’m guessing your first thought isn’t,
“Hey, let’s expand the creative sector.”
We’ve been conditioned to think
of the arts as a nice thing to have,
but not really as having a place
at the economic growth and security table.
I disagree.
When I moved to Ethiopia four years ago,
I wasn’t thinking about
these unemployment issues.
I was actually thinking about
how to expand operations
of a media company I had cofounded,
Truth Aid, in the US.
Ethiopia seemed like
an exciting new market for our business.
By the end of my first year there,
I joined a fledgling TV station
that exploded onto the media scene,
Kana TV,
as its first executive producer
and director of social impact.
My job was to figure out
how to produce premium original content
in Amharic, the official language,
in a labor market where the skills
and education for film and TV was limited.
There was really only
one way we could do it.
We would have to invest
heavily in training.
I was charged with training
the scripted drama team,
and there was really
only one way we could do that:
on the job,
paying my employees to make TV
while they learned how to make TV.
Their average age was 24,
it was their first job out of university,
and they were eager to learn.
We built a world-class studio and began.
The first show we created
as a product of our training
was a scripted series
with a powerful family at the center
called “Inheritance.”
The second show
was Ethiopia’s first teen drama,
called “Yegna,”
and was made in partnership
with the nonprofit Girl Effect.
These shows turned the cast
into overnight stars
and won audiences over,
and the best part
of my job quickly became
running what was essentially a content
production talent training factory.
Kana would go on to make
several original content shows,
including a health talk show I created
called “Hiyiweti,”
which translates into “my life.”
Now, this is obviously great for Kana,
but we were doing something bigger.
We were creating a model
for how training becomes employment
in a market where creating new jobs,
especially as it relates to young people,
is among the largest
of demographic challenges.
Now, you can’t say
you took a bite out of a large
social problem like unemployment
if the jobs you create
only serve the interests
of a single private sector company,
which is why I didn’t stop at TV.
I wanted the crews I had trained
to have exposure to international
standard production
and was so thrilled
when a Canadian-Irish coproduction
that I was executive producing
came to Ethiopia to shoot the feature film
“Sweetness in the Belly.”
I contacted the CEO
of the state-owned tours in Ethiopia
to see if we could use this film
as a learning case study
for how government can support
filmmaking and filmmakers.
The argument was,
films can promote economic growth
and attract tourism dollars
in two key ways:
by bringing production work to Ethiopia
and, more importantly,
by promoting Ethiopia
and its unique cultural assets
to the world.
The latter taps into
a nation’s expressive power.
The government was incredibly
receptive and supportive
and ended up providing logistical
and security support
above and beyond what a lone producer
could provide on her own,
especially to such a large film crew.
With their help, we were able
to complete shooting the feature film
under very challenging conditions,
and I was able to hire my TV crews
so they could deepen their experiences
and work alongside
a world-class film crew.
This meant our employees
could mature and grow
and move up their own
respective career ladders,
not just in our company
but in the market at large.
Members of our crew have gone on
to start their own production companies,
joined ad agencies, communication firms,
even other TV stations.
To me, this multiplier effect
is what it’s all about.
But the story gets better.
This was right around the time
the Jobs Creation Commission
hired me to conduct a diagnostic study
to assess the unmet needs of subsectors
like film, visual arts and design
and see what government could do
to respond to those needs.
After we completed the study,
we made policy recommendations
to incorporate the creative economy
in the National Jobs Action Plan
as a high-potential services industry.
This led to a larger effort
called Ethiopia Creates,
which is just beginning to organize
the creative industry entrepreneurs
in the sector
so the sector can thrive.
Ethiopia Creates recently organized
a film export mission
to the European film market,
where a team of Ethiopian filmmakers
were able to pitch their projects
for potential financing opportunities.
Now, putting culture
on the economic agenda
is an incredibly important milestone.
But the truth of the matter is,
there’s far more at stake than just jobs.
Ethiopia is at a critical juncture,
not just economically but democratically.
It seems like the rest of the world
is at a similar make-or-break moment.
From my perspective
on the ground in Ethiopia,
the country can go one of two ways:
either down a path of inclusive,
democratic participation,
or down a more divisive path
of ethnic divisions.
If we all agree that the good way to go
is down the inclusive path,
the question becomes: How do we get there?
I would argue one of the best ways
to safeguard democracy
is to expose everyone to each other’s
stories, music, cultures and histories,
and of course, it’s the creative economy
that does that best.
It’s the sector that helps
teach civil society
how to access new ideas
that are free of bias.
Artists have long found ways to inspire
inclusion, tell stories and make music
for lasting political impact.
The late, great American hero,
Congressman John Lewis,
understood this when he said,
“Without dance, without drama,
without photography,
the civil rights movement would have been
like a bird without wings.”
(Bell rings)
Man 1: OK, we’re back.
MM: Now imagine how much more effective
music, films and arts would be
if artists had good-paying jobs
and the government supported them.
In this case, economic growth
and democratic growth
go hand in hand.
I think any government
that views arts as a nice thing to have
as opposed to a must-have
is kidding itself.
Arts and culture in all of their forms
are indispensable for a country’s
economic and democratic growth.
It’s precisely countries like Ethiopia
that can’t afford to ignore
the very sector that has the potential
to make the greatest civic impact.
So just as John Lewis understood
that the civil rights movement
could not take flight without the arts,
without a thriving creative sector
that is organized like an industry,
Ethiopia’s future, or any other country
at its moment of reckoning,
cannot take flight.
The economic and democratic gains
these industries afford
make the creative economy essential
to development and progress.
Thank you.
Man 1: And … cut!
(Applause and cheers)