Jessica Beshir

“I Wanted to Experience Intimacy With the People I Was Filming”: DP Jessica Beshir on Faya Dayi

Jessica Beshir’s feature debut Faya Dayi is all about khat, a plant native to Ethiopia harvested and known for its euphoric properties when chewed. On another level, the film is about khat’s cultural significance as a major cash crop, analyzing its role both economically, socially, and generationally. Beshir tells us why she decided to take on the role of DP for her own film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Beshir: I started filming Faya Dayi as a very […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 2, 2021
“I Wanted Viewers to Meet People Before They Become News Stories”: Jessica Beshir on Faya Dayi

Filmed in the highlands of Harar, Ethiopia, Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi is a deeply personal project for the Mexican-Ethopian director. Having left her home city of Harar in tenth grade, the now-Brooklyn-based Beshir travelled back and forth between America and Ethiopia for a decade to spend time with family and gather material for the film, which now competes in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary section. The film provides an contemplative portrait of Harar and the people that live in and around it, using its focus on the harvest and trade of the “khat” plant—a chewable stimulant that has become the country’s […]
by Matt Turner on Feb 1, 2021

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