Event Details
Wed, June 18, 2025
20:00 – 21:30
LIMONAIA
Villa La Pietra
Via Bolognese, 120
50139 Florence, Italy
The Quantum Leapers, filmmaker Yemane Demissie’s multimedia work-in-progress anthology reexamines the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-1941, threading narratives from hundreds of Ethiopian witnesses with primary archival documents from Ethiopia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. The presentation will be followed by a discussion between Brett Gary and Demissie about his project, followed by a conversation with the audience.
PROGRAM
20:00 – Welcome guests and light reception
20:30 – Presentation by Yemane Demissie
21:00-21:30 – Conversation with Brett Gary followed by a discussion with the audience.
Featured Biographies
Yemane Demissie
PROFESSOR NYU TISCH SCOOL OF THE ARTS GRAD FILM DEPARTMENT
Yemane Demissie is an educator and award-winning filmmaker whose work includes two narrative feature films and two feature documentaries. He is a tenured full professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Grad Film Department and teaches courses in directing and screenwriting. Currently, Demissie is producing The Quantum Leapers, a multimedia anthology about the Emperor Haile Selassie era. Yemane has received significant recognition for his work including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Berlin Prize, and the Locarno Film Festival Production Grant. Demissie was also a resident fellow at numerous residences including at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, I Tatti, MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Yaddo, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the Dora Maar House.
Brett Gary
US CULTURAL HISTORIAN AND RETIRED PREFESSOR FROM NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION
Brett Gary is a US cultural historian and retired professor from New York University’s Department of Media, Culture and Communication. He is the author of The Nervous Liberals: Propaganda Anxieties from WWI to the Cold War (Columbia University Press), and Dirty Works: Obscenity on Trial in America’s First Sexual Revolution (Stanford University press), winner of the Gold Medal prize from the Independent Publishers Book Awards for the best book in US History in 2022.