Made in Ethiopia
In the heart of Ethiopia’s Dukem region, a huge industrial park making clothing products for global export symbolises hope for prosperity and progress. At its helm is Motto, a determined Chinese businesswoman, who navigates the complexities of growth amidst local resistance and bureaucratic hurdles. As she pushes for the park’s expansion, tensions rise over the contrast between the promise of employment and the displacement of local farmers from their land. Directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan delve into the intricate web of relationships within the park and the community surrounding it, offering a compelling examination of China's evolving presence in Africa. Shot over four years, Made in Ethiopia explores the human stories behind the economic transformation, painting a vivid portrait of a country at a crossroads between change and challenge.
Xinyan Yu is an award-winning video journalist and filmmaker based in Washington DC. In 2018, she launched the North America video team for Hong Kong’s flagship newspaper South China Morning Post in New York, and later joined the BBC's Washington DC bureau in 2020 as a senior video journalist. Now working as an independent filmmaker, she has directed and produced for the BBC, CNBC, PBS NOVA and Channel News Asia. Xinyan is a Firelight Media Documentary Lab fellow, a Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist fellow and an alumnus of the Yaddo Residency.
Max Duncan is a British filmmaker, journalist and cinematographer. His work has shown on platforms including BBC, Al Jazeera, PBS and the New York Times and been exhibited at galleries including Tate Modern. Now based in Madrid, he previously lived for a decade in China and speaks fluent Mandarin and Spanish. He is an alumnus of Logan and Yaddo fellowships and has received funding from organizations including Pulitzer and Ford Foundation. His half-hour film Down from the Mountains (2018) won a World Press Photo award. Other work has received recognition including Webby and One World Media Awards.
