SAIS "Made in Ethiopia" Film Screening

Description

Join the China Focus Area and Africa Focus Area for a film screening of Made in Ethiopia, a documentary film that examines the complexity of Chinese investment in Ethiopia. The showing will be followed by a Q&A with co-directors and co-producers Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan.

When a massive Chinese industrial park lands in rural Ethiopia, a dusty farming town finds itself at the new frontier of globalization. The sprawling factory complex's formidable Chinese director Motto now needs every bit of mettle and charm she can muster to push through a high-stakes expansion that promises 30,000 new jobs. Ethiopian farmer Workinesh and factory worker Beti have staked their futures on the prosperity the park promises. But as initial hope meets painful realities, they find themselves, like their country, at a pivotal crossroads.

Filmed over four years with singular access, Made in Ethiopia lifts the curtain on China's historic but misunderstood impact on Africa and explores contemporary Ethiopia at a moment of profound crisis. The film throws audiences into two colliding worlds: an industrial juggernaut fueled by profit and progress, and a vanishing countryside where life is still measured by the cycle of the seasons. And its nuance, complexity and multi-perspective approach go beyond black-and-white narratives of victims and villains. As the three women's stories unfold, Made in Ethiopia challenges us to rethink the relationship between tradition and modernity, growth and welfare, the development of a country and the well-being of its people.

Xinyan Yu is an Emmy-winning journalist and filmmaker with nearly 15 years of experience crafting intimate, character-driven films across continents. From factory floors in rural Ethiopia to wildfire zones in Hawaii, she specializes in vérité and investigative storytelling that blends cinematic intimacy with journalistic rigor through a deeply human lens. A former BBC producer and now an independent filmmaker, Yu has directed and produced work for major broadcasters including PBS, BBC, Channel News Asia, and NHK. She's a New America National Fellow, a Firelight Media Doc Lab fellow, a Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist fellow and a Yaddo Residency alum.

Max Duncan is an award-winning filmmaker, cinematographer, and journalist whose work has appeared on platforms including the BBC, PBS, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Al Jazeera. He worked for a decade in China, first as a video journalist for Reuters news agency in Beijing and then independently, exploring the country's meteoric rise from many angles. He has since reported widely across Asia—including multiple trips to North Korea—Africa, Europe, and Latin America. He has won a World Press Photo Award, been supported by organizations including Pulitzer, and is an alumnus of Yaddo and Logan Nonfiction programs.

This event is hosted by the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.