【演讲者及介绍】Mehret MandefroMehret Mandefro是一位获奖的制片人、编剧和导演。【演讲主题】一个强大的创意产业如何帮助经济繁荣How a strong creative industry helps economies thriveMM: I started making movies 15 years ago, during my internal medicine residency, as one does. I was doing HIV disparities research amongst Black women, and that work turned into a documentary, and Ive been making movies ever since. I like to think of the movies and shows I create as a kind of visual medicine. By that I mean I try to put stories on the screen that address large social barriers, like racism in America, gender inequities in Ethiopia and global health disparities. And its always my hope that audiences leave inspired to take actions that will help people hurdle those barriers. Visual medicine. Most of the time, I live and work in Ethiopia, the country I was born in, and currently, I sit on the advisory council of the Ethiopian Governments Jobs Creation Commission. Now, Im sure youre wondering what a doctor-turned-filmmaker, not economist, is doing working with the Jobs Creation Commission. Well, I believe the creative industries, like film and theater, design and even fashion, can promote economic growth and democratic ideals in any country. Ive seen it happen, Ive helped it happen, and Im here to tell you a little bit more. But first, some context. Over the past 15 years, Ethiopia has had amongst the fastest-growing economies in the world. This growth has led to a reduction in poverty. But according to 2018 numbers, unemployment rates in urban areas is around 19 percent, with higher unemployment rates amongst youth ages 15 to 29. No surprise, those numbers are even higher among young women. Like the rest of Africa, Ethiopias population is young, which means as the urban labor market continues to grow, people are aging into the workforce, and there arent enough jobs to go around. So put yourselves in the shoes of any government struggling to create enough good-paying jobs for a growing population. What do you do? Im guessing your first thought isnt, Hey, lets expand the creative sector. Weve been conditioned to think of the arts as a nice thing to have, but not really as having a place at the economic growth and security table. I disagree. When I moved to Ethiopia four years ago, I wasnt thinking about these unemployment issues. I was actually thinking about how to expand operations of a media company I had cofounded, Truth Aid, in the US. Ethiopia seemed like an exciting new market for our business. By the end of my first year there, I joined a fledgling TV station that exploded onto the media scene, Kana TV, as its first executive producer and director of social impact. My job was to figure out how to produce premium original content in Amharic, the official language, in a labor market where the skills and education for film and TV was limited. There was really only one way we could do it. We would have to invest heavily in training. I was charged with training the scripted drama team, and there was really only one way we could do that: on the job, paying my employees to make TV while they learned how to make TV. Their average age was 24, it was their first job out of university, and they were eager to learn. We built a world-class studio and began. The first show we created as a product of our training was a scripted series with a powerful family at the center called Inheritance. The second show was Ethiopias first teen drama, called Yegna, and was made in partnership with the nonprofit Girl Effect. These shows turned the cast into overnight stars and won audiences over, and the best part of my job quickly became running what was essentially a content production talent training factory. Kana would go on to make several original content shows, including a health talk show I created called Hiyiweti, which translates into my life. Now, this is obviously great for Kana, but we were doing something bigger. We were creating a model for how training becomes employment in a market where creating new jobs, especially as it relates to young people, is among the largest of demographic challenges. Now, you cant say you took a bite out of a large social problem like unemployment if the jobs you create only serve the interests of a single private sector company, which is why I didnt stop at TV. I wanted the crews I had trained to have exposure to international standard production and was so thrilled when a Canadian-Irish coproduction that I was executive producing came to Ethiopia to shoot the feature film Sweetness in the Belly. I contacted the CEO of the state-owned tours in Ethiopia to see if we could use this film as a learning case study for how government can support filmmaking and filmmakers. The argument was, films can promote economic growth and attract tourism dollars in two key ways: by bringing production work to Ethiopia and, more importantly, by promoting Ethiopia and its unique cultural assets