Filmmaker Edelawit Hussien is pleased with the reception of her latest short fashion film, "ADDIS AFRICANA." Although it takes place in New York, people from Senegal and Ethiopia have commented on how close it feels to their own lives. Set to show at South Africa's International Fashion Film Festival in April, the piece strives to illuminate the experience of those who have grown up between two or more cultures. Hussein—a senior at New York University with an impressive professional background at creative agencies like MATTE and Milk—pulled from her own multicultural past and present for inspiration.Born and raised in Ethiopia, Hussien moved to Seattle with her family at age seven, and since then, she's lived in Atlanta, Kansas City, New York, and Boston. For now, she calls Brooklyn home (but says she'd move anywhere after college "for the right project").ADDIS AFRICANA is shot from the perspective of an urban young person, incorporating aspects of Hussein's Ethiopian and American identity—which have, at times, felt conflicting to her—and bringing in imagery from a solo trip to Morocco she took last winter. Broadly sat down with Hussein at New York City's Cafe Henrie to learn how she integrated international cultures through representation and aesthetic in "ADDIS AFRICANA."Read more on Broadly.
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