Tizita

In Ethiopia it is often said that “an artist in exile is like fish out of water”. Regardless, a growing number of Ethiopian artists, musicians, writers, actors, and journalists are fleeing the violence and repression that is spreading in their homeland. Thanks to Canada’s welcoming refugee policy, many have landed in Toronto. Safe from physical persecution here, they’re now only beginning the emotional and spiritual struggle that comes from being cut off from not only the community and people they most love, but the element of life that gave them purpose. Famous at home, they have become nobody in exile.

Tizita is a documentary short in which three such musicians reflect on what they have left behind, how they made it to Canada and how they are trying to rebuild their identities; to become new fish in new water. The film follows the musicians gathering to play music drawn from […]

In Ethiopia it is often said that “an artist in exile is like fish out of water”. Regardless, a growing number of Ethiopian artists, musicians, writers, actors, and journalists are fleeing the violence and repression that is spreading in their homeland. Thanks to Canada’s welcoming refugee policy, many have landed in Toronto. Safe from physical persecution here, they’re now only beginning the emotional and spiritual struggle that comes from being cut off from not only the community and people they most love, but the element of life that gave them purpose. Famous at home, they have become nobody in exile.

Tizita is a documentary short in which three such musicians reflect on what they have left behind, how they made it to Canada and how they are trying to rebuild their identities; to become new fish in new water. The film follows the musicians gathering to play music drawn from the unique Ethiopian traditional pentatonic musical scale. The scale contains different combinations that are tied to specific themes – Tizita being associated with songs and stories built around memories.

The film is directed by Gezahegn M. Demissie, an Ethiopian documentary filmmaker who is also a refugee in Canada, trying to reinvent himself.