Haile Gerima is an independent filmmaker and retired professor of film at Howard University in Washington DC. Born and raised in Ethiopia, Gerima emigrated to the United States in 1967. Following in the footsteps of his father, a dramatist and playwright, Gerima studied acting in Chicago before entering the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where his exposure to Latin American films inspired him to mine his own cultural legacy. After completing his thesis film, Bush Mama (1975), Gerima received international acclaim with Harvest: 3000 Years (1976), an Ethiopian drama that won the Grand Prize at the Locarno film festival. After the award-winning Ashes & Embers (1982) and the documentaries Wilmington 10—USA 10,000 (1978) and After Winter: Sterling Brown (1985), Gerima filmed his epic Sankofa (1993). This formally ambitious tale of a plantation slave revolt was ignored by US distributors, but Gerima tapped into African American communities, and booked sold-out screenings in independent theatres around the country. In 1996, Gerima founded the Sankofa Video and Bookstore in Washington DC, a cultural and intellectual space that offers opportunities for self-expression, interaction, discussion, and analysis through community events such as film screenings, book signings, scholar forums, and artist showcases. Gerima continues to distribute and promote his own films, including his last film Teza (2008), which won the Jury Prize and Best Screenplay awards at the Venice Film Festival. He also lectures and conducts workshops in alternative screenwriting and directing both within the US and internationally.