'Zemene' a documentary of hope and love in Ethiopia

By Emily Clark
eclark@wickedlocal.com

Posted Sep. 5, 2015 at 10:00 AM 

He wasn’t supposed to be there.

Dr. Rick Hodes was going to buy soap from the man he always buys soap from in the Ethiopian city of Gondar.

The soap guy was late.

And that turned out to be extremely important.

Camerawoman Melissa Donovan, hired to shoot B-roll footage of Hodes for a film project, trained her lens on the doctor, who waited in the coffee shop for the man and the soap until both finally appeared. Hodes bought the guy something to eat and announced he was going to cross the street to check his email at a location with a computer. Donovan followed.

As they walked along the sunlit street, they spotted a small girl and a man walking toward them with tears in their eyes. Hodes didn’t have to look twice at the girl to notice her condition.

“You have a bad back,” he said.

What happened after that would encompass an odyssey of hope where none had been and a film that changed lives.

Zemene Tiget did have a bad back. Hodes learned that she was born with dwarfism and kyphosis, a severe curvature of the spine that would eventually kill her if she didn’t get corrective surgery. Her mother had died trying to save her and her father had abandoned her because of her handicaps.

Armed with donations from their tiny village, her uncle Menormelkam, had taken her to the clinic in Gondar where doctors had just informed them that they couldn’t help her, that he should return with her to their village, Bellessa, and make her as comfortable as possible.

They were words for a dying person, and Zemene and her uncle were devastated.

Hodes listened while Donovan filmed, astounded by the encounter.

“I was just so taken by this little girl that looked so fragile and had this incredible light coming from her,” Donovan said. “My camera was drawn to her as was my heart. She took my hand and I held her hand with the camera in the other. That was the moment my heart really got taken. I thought if I could shoot footage of her, maybe I could help her.”

Hodes, an American internist and spinal specialist helping the needy in Ethiopia, told Zemene and her uncle that if they could find a way to get to the capital city, he would help her.

Thus begins the story Donovan unfolds in her first documentary film “Zemene,” which will be screened at Plimoth Cinema at Plimoth Plantation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17. A question and answer session with Zemene and her uncle will follow the screening, and Donovan will discuss this incredible story of love and hope. “Zemene” has garnered seven film festival awards, including best documentary, best cinematography and best editing at the Boston Film Festival.

Read the full history here