Cloverlandfarm: Bewoket

Cloverlandfarm: Bewoket

Film is done!

After nearly 10 years (or over 10 years) we have completed the film. The sheer joy was quickly followed with the sinking fear of now what? For so long the film was incomplete, and now that it is complete, it is another job to get the film out there. And so it goes. We submitted to about 15 fests, to date have not received acceptance into a single one. I think it is okay though and will give us an opportunity to find interesting ways to get the film out there. We have been receiving great support from the Ethiopian community accross the country, as well as some of the Jewish community and cultural communities.

Bewoket The Film

We started filming Bewoket in 1998. Sam Shnider was doing an internship through NYU at the BBC in London. One Saturday at morning services at the Synogogue he was frequenting, he met Dr. Rick Hodes. Rick Hodes is an American that happened to be travelling in London from Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia. The two hit it off and Sam left with an invitation to visit him in Ethiopia the following Spring Break. Sam being a young filmmaker at the time decided to bring his camera and take Rick up on his offer. On his way to Ethiopia, Sam was asked by Rick to accompany a 13 year old boy on the plane to Ethiopia. This Ethiopian boy has recently had open heart surgery in Atlanta, Georgia and was returning to his home in Addis. Sam met Bewoket at the airport and spent the next twelve hours filming him. And that is how we started filming Bewoket.
Now we are at eight years later- November 2007 and so much has happened since we firt started filming this story. Rick Hodes is still in Ethiopia, and we are still working on this film. In 2004, another child that Rick Hodes had sent to America was featured on Good Morning America. Now we just found out that CNN is sending a crew to film Rick in his home.