Getting lost in Venice
An auto-anthropological road movie

One of my favourite books as a child was, “Maria og katten i Venezia” (Maria and her cat in Venice). It was written by the Norwegian author Marie Takvam and had drawings from Venice by Ulf Aas. The book was first published in 1960 when I was five years old. Similar in age to mine, Maria decided to follow a tourist family of three – whom lived in with them for the summer – around the town without permission from her father and grandmother. Eventually, she got lost in this labyrinthic town that dates back to the 5th Century.

​Built on 118 islands, the 400 bridges connecting them lead into narrow alleys and mysterious passages. When I travelled to Venice for the first time in February 1982 (before the carnival turns the town on its head every year), I was overtaken by the magic of a town engulfed in winter fog. Finally finding myself in Maria’s Venice, I was crisscrossing the town for several days on end without feeling tired. I had hoped to experience this feeling again on more recent visits to Venice – to no avail. Rather, the “chase” for the magical feeling informed my stays – a chase that I imagine I share with many of the close to 6 million tourists that visit Venice annually. However, their mere number destroys the magic (even when trying to avoid the crowds in the early morning).

And I too got lost. In Maria’s case her cat found her, and after a sleep-over together under an empty tomato crate in a gondola, they happened to come across some nice people who helped them home. In my case, google map did not help that much when I could not figure out the cardinal points.

See this film (2024) on Youtube

Speaking the unspeakable
​In the aftermath of weaponized rape in Tigray, North-Ethiopia

By Thera Mjaaland and Kibrom Mebrahtom, 2023

​As a weapon of war, thousands of girls and women, as well as some boys and men, were sexually abused during the war in Tigray (2020-22). The perpetrators were soldiers from the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), Amhara Special Forces, Fano militia and Eritrea. The fact that a majority of the region’s health centers and other essential infra-structure had been looted and destroyed during the first months of war, further exacerbated the situation for rape survivors. On top of physical and psychological health issues not attended to, the social stigma related to rape has led many survivors to carry their trauma in silence.

The Music that Makes Wonders

Picture
By Thera Mjaaland and Kibrom Mebrahtom, 2021
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This short documentary is about three traditional “embilta” players in Asgede Tsimbla Wereda, north-western Tigray, North-Ethiopia. Since the film was shot in 2019, these three men have also become representatives for the Tigrayan people and culture that the Ethiopian Nobel Peace Prize winning prime minister Abiy Ahmed in 2020-22, and with military help from Eritrea and regional militia groups, wanted to wipe out with bullets, sexual violence and hunger.​

No going back!
Anti-FGM activism in Singida region, Tanzania
By Chiku Ali, Thera Mjaaland and Agnete Strøm, 2020

This documentary is about the community activism that the independent women’s organization SIAC, together with its sister organization DIAC, has initiated in Tanzania against female genital mutilation (FGM). In the film, Tanzanian-Norwegian Chiku Ali takes us around in Singida where she is born, to meet some of those who have taken it upon themselves to eradicate FGM: elders, ex-circumcisers, anti-FGM activists, village and district leaders, health personnel, religious leaders and youth club members. The film was shot  in January 2019 in the villages of Ikungi, Mahambe and Samumba, in addition to Singida Town, among the Nyaturu-speaking people for whom FGM has been culturally significant. In Samumba girls are still at risk of being circumcised. The villages of Mahambe and Ikungi, on the other hand, claim they are FGM-free. The way they know, is that health clinics have started to register at first delivery whether women have been circumcised or not. These organisations have, thus, gone further than other community anti-FGM organisations to get reliable numbers for their claim that change is taking place. 
See the film on YouTube with English, Norwegian or Swahili sub-titles

Dialogues about abortion

In Ethiopia, abortion has since 2005 been allowed in the case of: 1) Incest or rape, 2) if continuation of the pregnancy is dangerous for the woman's or the fetus’ health, 3) if the fetus has a deformity, and 4) if the woman has a physical or psychological problem (including if she is under the age of 18). The following 11 dialogues took place in villages and rural towns of north-western Tigray after screenings of the four-part edutainment drama, CHOICES & CONSEQUENCES, where "Solyana" fell unwanted pregnant. Parents and close relatives of the youth actors, teachers, health workers and religious leaders took part in these dialogues. The youth who had got basic film training in the project, were also part of the film team for this research documentary.

My film project was included in the Norwegian Research Council-funded and University of Bergen-based research project: “Competing discourses impacting on girls’ and women’s rights: Fertility control and safe abortion in Ethiopia, Zambia and Tanzania” (2016-2018).

Participants
This is a documentary (2020) about some of the youth who took part in the edutainment drama CHOICES & CONSEQUENCES, part 1-4 on youth sexual and reproductive health in Ethiopia. We get their reflections on what they have learned from participating in the project and what they think the dramas can teach other youth. Going back to their home places in villages and rural towns in Asgede Tsimbla Wereda in north-western Tigray, they also asked their parents and relatives what they think about their participation in the project. The youth who had got basic film training in the project, were also part of the film team for this documentary.

Exploring methods of engagement in research on youth sexual and reproductive health, my film project was part of the Norwegian Research Council-funded and University of Bergen-based research project: “Competing discourses impacting on girls’ and women’s rights: Fertility control and safe abortion in Ethiopia, Zambia and Tanzania” (2016-2018).

Masho's monologue
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​Masho Asenaw was one of the main actors in the edutainment drama CHOICES & CONSEQUENCES, part 1-4. She was also one of the most talented actors in the project. But she worries about the prospect of becoming a professional actor in the current economic context in Tigray, North-Ethiopia. Her family also tries their best to discourage her from pursuing this career path.

​See the film (2020) on YouTube

A short film about water
​This short film by Thera Mjaaland (2019) explores the global water crisis, contrasting the abundance of water in Bergen, Norway, with the reality of water scarcity faced by billions worldwide. It highlights the amount of water used daily by an average Norwegian and the hidden water footprint of industrial products and food production.

Love Complications
An edutainment drama about youth sexual and reproductive health
By Shewit Goytom, Dejen Fisseha, Helen Girmay, Mekonnen Goytom, Masho Azenaw, Merhawit Teshome, Bethelhem Haileselassie, Tedros Guesh, Tewelde Negassie and Tekleweyni Berhe

Director and producer: Thera Mjaaland, 2018

See the drama on YouTube in Tigrinya and with English sub-titles

Choices & Consequences
An edutainment drama about youth sexual and reproductive health​
This four-part edutainment drama that I produced in Endabaguna in north-western Tigray, North-Ethiopia 2016-18, aims to initiate discussion on youth sexual and reproductive health in the case of contraceptive use and abortion. Youth make different choices that have consequences for their own and others' lives when entering puberty. The drama addresses gender norms that influence youth sexuality in a context where reproductive options, in the case of different contraceptive methods and safe abortion services, are in fact legally available for them. Knowledge about these options is low, however, and the silence around youth sexual and reproductive health issues prevails. When sexual abstention before marriage is reinforced by the female virginity ideal, it also becomes difficult for girls to be prepared and protect themselves if it “just happens”. This short edutainment drama also asks whether other options for being a more responsible man are thinkable.

Financed by Norwegian Research Council/NORGLOBAL through the University of Bergen-based research project: “Competing discourses impacting girls’ and women’s rights: Fertility control and safe abortion in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia”, research data will be generated from the discussions of the drama with youth, parents, teachers, health workers, religious leaders and other community members.

Three Days of Freedom
​Women’s Ashenda celebration in Mekelle Tigray, North-Ethiopia

By Tewodros Hailemichael and Thera Mjaaland, 2018
​Ashenda is an age-old women’s culture that was in the process of disappearing. Originally celebrated in highland Ethiopia and Eritrea in August every year, this documentary tells the story about one particular attempt to revive this culture in the regional capital of Tigray, Mekelle. Here groups of girls and young women come from all parts of the region to celebrate their freedom for three days. Presented from both a cultural and religious perspective in light of recent research, participants also tell about the value Ashenda has for them. The documentary gives voice to different stakeholders like the Women’s Association of Tigray who revived this dying culture in order to forward women’s issues, Tigray Culture and Tourism Bureau who utilises it as a tourist attraction in the pursuit of economic growth and wants to register it in UNESCO, and a music expert who envisions it being developed into an opera. The film was shot during the Ashenda celebration in Mekelle, August 2017 [2009 E.C.]. 

Fighting for fitness
By Thera Mjaaland and Anna Webster, 2017
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This short documentary about the British military fitness instructor Aaron Downes and one of the participants on his trainings, Zoe Crick, was made as a student work on a short course in ethnographic documentary at Grenada Centre for Visual Anthropology, Manchester University.

At the frontiers of change
Girls’ education in north-western Tigray, Ethiopia
By Thera Mjaaland and Genet Ashebir, 2014

​This documentary is based on social anthropologist Thera Mjaaland’s (2013) doctoral thesis, "At the frontiers of change? Women and girls’ pursuit of education in north-western Tigray, Ethiopia". Girls had started to outnumber boys in primary and secondary education in Asgede Tsimbla Wereda in the north-western zone of Tigray region in North-Ethiopia where, and when, this film was made. Nevertheless, rural girls still face the challenge of underage marriage despite the legal marriage age for boys and girls in Ethiopia now being 18. This is due to the continued importance of female virginity and the burden of sexual morality still shouldered by girls, which is left unchallenged by efforts to address underage marriage. In this film we follow female students who have stood up against underage marriage in their rural home villages to be able to pursue secondary school in the market town of Endabaguna. The film communicates some of the research findings from this area of Tigray to a broader public than the academic, including back to the local community where this ethnographic research was done 2008-2012. 

See the documentary on Youtube in Tigrinya or English