Background
The influence of film has widely been seen everywhere. As a work of art and science, its significant role in preserving a society’s culture, disseminating a country’s history and informing a wide rage of audience irrespective of their cultural differences and age groups across the world is undeniable. Unlike books, movies – in a not more than two-hour duration – could meet the goal they are made for easily. There are many wonderful movies which have universal appeal even if the audience of those movies do not know the languages the actors spoke in them.

Eritrea, a very young nation, has had wonderful cinema halls for over half a century. Those cinema halls were apparently made to host Italian colonialists residing in the country in the first half of the 20th century. This, therefore, is believed to have influenced the native Eritreans interest of going to watch the moving pictures. Mr. Yoftahe Musa Aron, from VISAFRIC Productions, indicated that the TV transmission from Kagnew Station in Asmara in the 1960s and early 1970s also had its share of influence in shaping the taste of many Eritreans in movies. In 1980s, the cinema halls in Asmara used to be crowded with the youth to watch Indian movies of Bollywood productions.

In the liberated areas during the armed struggle, various documentaries in Eritrean local languages as well as dramas were produced. Although they were a sort of agitprop productions, they had specific targets and had played important roles in campaigning and raising the Eritrean people’s awareness of what was going on around them and in the struggle. If an attempt is made to single out some dramas to consider them as feature films, they will only remain plays recorded for playbacks; because they lacked appropriate setting that could enhance their credibility as well as quality means of production which could be used for broadcasting. However, it is worth noting that there were well-written and directed dramas like “Eti Kal'e Kuinat” (“The Other War”) and “Sidrabet” (“Family”). Yet they were only dramas recorded in videos, not feature films.

After Eritrea’s independence, there had been various attempts to produce films in addition to recording some plays in various cinema/theatre halls of Asmara. Mr. Temesgen Tsehaye who studied Law, Journalism and Photography in Italy and had additional studies on Cinematography and Broadcasting School of Milan directed “Minister” (written by Efrem Kahsay (Wedi Kuada)) – the first Eritrean movie to be subtitled in English – as well as “Harvest of Hope”. Mr. Temesgen indicated that the first real endeavour, however, came in 1996 with the production of “Barud 77” which was adapted from a novella titled “Enda Afras”. “Barud 77”, directed by the late Mr. Bereket Yohannes and where in Mr. Temesgen Tsehaye was the art director, was the first of its kind in terms of fulfilling various elements of a feature film. Most importantly, it was the first movie in Eritrea to have been shot with a Beta Cam and to have its own original sound track, Mr. Temesgen stated. Following this, the progress of film production in Eritrea has been encouraging in terms of their quantity; while they have yet a long way to go in their quality.
Mr. Elias Amaré, Chairperson of the Eritrean Film Rating Committee, indicated that unlike some audience in some African countries, the Eritrean audience are so respectful of their culture and always opt to watch local films over foreign ones. For that matter, all the cinema halls in Asmara host local films during weekends and holidays. Therefore, the Eritrean audience have shown their support and encouragement by flocking to the cinema halls to watch local films in their own languages.

In the years between 2001 and 2004, the cinema halls used to be full to their brims; people had to queue for hours to watch them. Mr. Elias also added that although around 200 films of different genres have been produced so far, the last ten years could be taken as formative period of Eritrean film production with limited experience and having no reference. Eritrean film production is yet in the process of emerging as those involved in the making are not professionals trained in the field, he continued.

Eritrean films are always blamed for revolving around stale themes and issues: sexual relationships, love or patriotism. As screenplay writing is one of the basic elements of filmmaking, it is undoubtedly important for the success of a movie. Mr. Elias stated that in the first place Eritrea does not have poverty of stories and as screenplay is from which the story of the film takes shape, it is the foundation of a film. He added that screenplay writing has a lot of room for improvement by organizing continuous workshops to make Eritrean writers be aware of the art and techniques of screenplay writing. As a result, the quality is still in its formative years.

It is believed that producers are to be blamed for the poor quality film production as they have no idea about the work and are interest only on benefits. To this Eritrea Film Rating Committee had conducted a preliminary studied on the situation of producers and dealers. Although the study had limitations, it appears to conclude that those involved rarely benefit from the productions.

Mr. Yoftahe, from VISAFRIC Productions, speaking about some of the problems of Eritrean film production, stated that Eritrea inherited many problems from the times of colonization. Probably filmmaking might not be one of the priorities from the challenges that the country is faced with, he added. Despite that, various attempts to produce films are underway. Mr. Yoftahe stressed that those involved in filmmaking efforts are not making movies, they only attempting to do so. Therefore, he indicated that some of the problems in the attempts are that the equipments that were very expensive previously are now readily available for everyone to own and thus anyone interested is trying to use them. Consequently, people without the training and experience are involved in the work without considering how financially viable it is. And most importantly, he said that they are undermining their audience forgetting that the population in the country has had a longstanding culture of going to the movies.

As there is no any educational institution that teaches performing arts or film production, most of the movies released have been made by trial and error said Mr. Yoftahe. He added that filmmaking is a team work where there is a division of work among those involved professionals of various fields; and those professionals need to fulfil certain requirements and success depends on the performance of the team; however, what is happening right now is only an ad hoc kind of undertaking the work by just hastily getting together. Responding to a question as to the importance of the availability of highly advanced technology or equipment, he said that anyone could buy a stethoscope but that does not make them doctors. Mr. Yoftahe stressed that it is not the equipment but the human mind that does the job. Of course, the equipment could facilitate and improve the efficiency of the work but it is not a means to an end as the creative or human component comes from the team involved, he added.

For that reason, both Mr. Temesgen and Mr. Yoftahe agreed on the effects of movies in shaping the way societies live. Mr. Temesgen went on to say that our filmmakers should try to come with a brand they could be recognized by, just like artists would be identified for their styles, as Iranian, Japanese and Russian filmmakers do. “These filmmakers come up with original stories that represent their own reality and lifestyle with universal appeal,” said Mr. Temesgen. “Not often we do that here.” Sticking to this line of thinking, Mr. Yoftahe stated that as film is one of the components of media, it is one of the strongest weapons and somehow it has to be controlled. Due to globalization and other reasons, there are those who advocated one world, one culture, but whose culture, Mr. Yoftahe inquired. For that matter, movie makers have the responsibility in protecting our culture and identity; if not, we may lose them and it would facilitate the downfall of our society, he added.
Many agree that budget is a bottleneck in film production. However, acquiring budget but not the expertise would only be waste of resources. Film production costs a lot; of course, well-made films also have returns that cannot be taken lightly. Mr. Elias Amaré suggested that the following points could play important roles to promote Eritrean culture and artistic activities as well as get significant revenues from it:
• the art of film criticism should be strengthened in all the media outlets; putting in mind that no one is above criticism; fair and substantiated criticism should flourish.
• there should be more long and short term workshops and trainings to sharpen the filmmakers craft and exposure.
• there should be a sort of film institute (school of performing arts) that trains promising filmmakers.
• there should be state investment and nurturing for it could have significant role to play in the economy of the country; in this regard there could be investment in establishing studios, arranging TV airtime to give a venue to the films as well as providing protection from competition of imported films, as that served many other countries best.
When the problems stated above, and many more persisted in the Eritrean filmmaking, in April 1, 2006 many of those involved in the field called for the establishment of a film rating committee. In response to that, with the assistance of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of PFDJ, members of a film rating committee has been selected. The committee under the name of Eritrean Film Rating Committee (EFRC) commenced its job in January 2008. In part two of this article, we will try to have a bird’s eye view on the ways the committee works and what it has accomplished so far.