ABEBE BIKILA

                                                        (Short Documentary)

INTRODUCTION

              Hi, my name is Kaleab Hailu Gebeyehu I am a 19 years old filmmaker from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A country known for its firm moral values, culture and extremely diversified people I am from a family with a humble background I have one brother and one sister whom both are my elders. My mother is a store keeper in Addis Ababa University and my father works at a non-governmental organization. When I was about 4 years of age I had an accident which unknowingly left me blind in one eye. I have had extreme love and passion for art since childhood as a child I used to cut papers to make characters and play with them after a while my passion grew into drawing but still I imagine about things around me, things I see and things I hear about to create a new form to draw, write and fantasize about them soon my passion for drawing grew into writing then at about 10th grade changed to film making I had always been an avid film fan since I can remember but it has never occurred to me that I could become a film maker since then I wrote scripts after scripts developing myself and my stories on a quest of finding what kind of films I want to make and even used to cut class to stay home so that I can write, read about films and film directors. I mostly taught myself everything I know about art and films and by that don't take me the wrong way I know just a little when I was in seventh grade I won a camera in a drawing competition (Toyota Dream Car Art Contest) since then I have been immersing myself into the art world and it finding me on a various occasions currently I am working on a short documentary art house sports film titled Abebe Bikila a film about an Ethiopian long distance runner who won the 1960 Olympics in Rome while running barefoot, setting a world record. I want to tell my own stories with there color, language and narration. I so believe that film is an important medium of art expression.

CAMPAIGN

             Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathon runner. A double Olympic marathon champion, he won the first at the 1960 summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot, setting a world record. He is Africa's first world record breaking athlete in any sport and the first sub-Saharan African Olympic gold medalist. The short documentary film chronicles the life of Abebe and his extraordinary journey from a Jato, born Ethiopian to becoming an Olympic gold medalist and to his tragedy accident and death. It is a short, biographical, art house, documentary.

          The first thing that initiated me to start making this film was I want to tell stories of my own people, culture and custom so that the world will know better and become part of it but most importantly it was Abebe, who grasped my attention his strength, his speed, willingness to fight for his country and him self and all his deeds as a runner and a human being have made a significance in me to make this film and I want to make this film so that this national hero will be remembered and admired for all he did.

       CONTRIBUTE!  

                                                                    ABEBE BIKILA

The making of this film has been going on for a while now but to fully make this film reach its standards I want your contribution WHY? I have to have newsreel footage's of all Olympics and track running events he participated on, all interviews conducted with him, all written books, a studio (work place) to rent, victual and travel expenses for me and my colleagues is needed to make this film complete. I have planned the film will have a running time span between 30-40 minutes, music of the Olympics and another mixed for the film, to be released in both Amharic (Ethiopian language) and English language and a crew of a director and a writer (me), a music composer, an editor and someone to produce it. The schedule for the film is planned to start post production in the month of May 2019 with 2-4 crew and 1 month of post production, 3 months of shooting (verbally) and 1 month of editing totally 5 month. the production budget will depend on the crew provided plus additional costs listed above but totally we are looking forward to raise $500-$2500 on IndieGoGo and cover the rest from producers but we will be accepting any offer and contribution that we can get to cover expenses of the short, biographical, documentary, art house film Abebe Bikila.    

                                                              EXPENSES & OTHER 

.FILM PRODUCTION........................................................$500-$2500

.VICTUAL & TRAVEL EXPENSES....................................$690.50

.STUDIO (WORK PLACE) RENT......................................$525 PER MONTH

.OTHER.............................................................................$319

.TOTAL..............................................................................$2500-$5000= $2500 

*OUR DEEPEST REGARDS FOR ANY ONE WHO CAN CONTRIBUTE IN ANY WAY AND FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. 

                                                                   CONCLUSION

              First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity that you have given me even for looking at my project. I hope we get to make this film so that this national hero will be remembered and admired for all he did.