Movie-Database

Dagmawi Yimer

Biography

Dagmawi Yimer was born and raised in Addis Ababa, and now lives in Verona. He left Ethiopia after the unrest surrounding the elections in 2005, in which hundreds of young people were taken to jail and killed. After a traumatic journey through the Libyan Desert and a perilous crossing across the Mediterranean in late July 2006, he landed on the island of Lampedusa. He remained in Italy and took part in a 2007 film workshop. Together with five other immigrants, he made his first film in Rome, IL DESERTO E IL MARE. Since then, he has made several

other short films and documentaries on the situation of migrants and racism in Italy, as well as the victims on the EU’s southernmost borders. Since it is such an exception to the rule that refugees self-document their stories, no less than three films by Dagmawi Yimer are being screened in Cologne: The autobiographical reconstruction of his escape route in LIKE A MAN ON EARTH, his documentary VA PENSIERO about racist attacks in Italy, and his 2015 cinematic tribute to the refugees who perished at sea before reaching Lampedusa, ASMAT – NAMES IN MEMORY OF ALL VICTIMS OF THE SEA. The latter was produced by “Archivio delle Memorie Migranti”,

which is dedicated to documenting the history and stories of migrants in Italy through photography, film and video.

Filmography

Schwarz ist der Ozean – Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart von (Zwangs-)Migration und Flucht : Guest

LIKE A MAN ON EARTH (2008): Screenplay, Guest, Direction

VA PENSIERO (2013): Direction, Screenplay

ASMAT (2014): Guest, Screenplay, Direction