Jessica Beshir
{{Short description|Ethiopian-Mexican filmmaker (born 1988)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Jessica Beshir (2021) A.jpg
| caption = Beshir in 2021
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1988}}
| birth_place = Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
| alma_mater = University of California, Los Angeles
| occupation = Film director
| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (2024)
}}
Jessica Beshir (born 1988) is a Mexican documentary filmmaker. After directing several documentary shorts, she made her feature film debut with Faya Dayi (2021) which she won several awards for.
Biography
Jessica Beshir was born in 1988 in Mexico City,{{Cite web |title=Pauchi Sasaki x Jessica Beshir |url=https://www.filmfestival.be/en/festival/25x2/pauchi-sasaki-x-jessica-beshir |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=Film Fest Gent}} the daughter of a Mexican mother and an Ethiopian father who was studying medicine in the country.{{Cite web |date=10 August 2022 |title=Interview With Jessica Beshir on FAYA DAYI - |url=https://festivalkit.net/interview-with-jessica-beshir-on-faya-dayi/ |access-date=9 August 2024 |website=Festival Kit}} Due to the government calling for the repatriation of the diaspora following the Ethiopian Civil War, her father brought the family to Harar, Ethiopia, where Beshir grew up, and worked as a surgeon in the country. When she was about sixteen,{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Amber |date=16 February 2021 |title=Interview with Jessica Bashir about Faya Dayi |url=https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2021-02-16-interview-with-jessica-bashir-about-faya-dayi-feature-story-by-amber-wilkinson |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=www.eyeforfilm.co.uk}} the family fled Ethiopia and returned to Mexico when her father got a scholarship. She obtained her BA in film studies and literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. Jessica is based in Brooklyn, NY.
Her documentary short film He Who Dances on Wood (2016) is about a man, Fred Nelson, who practices tap dancing on a block of wood in a tunnel in Prospect Park, an urban park in Brooklyn.{{Cite news |first=Heather |last=King |date=1 September 2023 |title='He Who Dances on Wood' and finding yourself |url=https://angelusnews.com/voices/dances-on-wood-documentary/ |access-date=10 January 2025}} In 2017, the film was awarded Best Documentary Short at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Jury Award at the Anchorage International Film Festival.{{Cite web |title=Beshir, Jessica |url=https://africanfilmny.org/directors/jessica-beshir/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=African Film Festival, Inc.}} Her documentary short Hairat (2017) is about Abba Yussuf, the "Hyena Man of Harar" who came to international attention through the documentary series Planet Earth II.{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Amber |date=27 March 2017 |title=Hairat (2016) Movie Review from Eye for Film |url=https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/hairat-2016-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=Eye for Film}} Hairat premiered at the Sundance Film Festival,{{Cite web |title=Jessica Beshir |url=https://iffr.com/en/person/jessica-beshir |access-date=9 August 2024 |website=IFFR EN}} and it was shown at the 2018 Garden State Film Festival.
In 2021, she made her feature film directorial debut with Faya Dayi.{{Cite news |last=Carey |first=Matthew |date=6 April 2021 |title=Janus Films Takes North American Rights To 'Faya Dayi', “Gorgeously Cinematic” Doc From Director Jessica Beshir |url=https://deadline.com/2021/04/janus-films-acquires-rights-faya-dayi-documentary-jessica-beshir-news-1234728839/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=Deadline Hollywood}} She says "Me and the making of this film were one. It taught me about who I was. Nobody was interested in doing it [with me]. I realized I am the one who needs to do it, so I better learn how to use a camera, and I better learn how to produce. It was a call to develop myself, and in reconnecting with this land that I had left for a long time, I came to learn its history, and came to learn and listen to what the communities were talking about and to understand the struggles they were grappling with at the moment, especially politically."{{Cite web |title=An Evening with Faya dayi Director Jessica Beshir |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7636-an-evening-with-faya-dayi-director-jessica-beshir?srsltid=AfmBOoo0SUwMEk55P7oRRjTIYHiFaLHji2B9LE3X6zOrEEcGlZUzp_GX |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=The Criterion Collection |language=en}} The complexity of the human experience is explored and underrepresented perspectives are frequently highlighted in Jessica Beshir's work. She uses a lyrical visual language in her films to elicit strong emotional reactions from her viewers. Focusing on topics like migration, family, and cultural legacy, Beshir's documentaries offer a complex look at the lives of people who are frequently underrepresented in the media. She won an American Society of Cinematographers Documentary Award, the Independent Spirit Awards Truer Than Fiction Award, and two Visions du Réel awards for the film, which was also shortlisted for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film and aired on POV on 29 August 2022.{{Cite web |title=Faya Dayi |url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/fayadayi/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=POV |publisher=PBS}} In 2024, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film and Video.{{Cite web |title=MEET OUR 2024 FELLOWS |url=https://www.gf.org/announcements/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}} Jane Steiner Hoffman and Michael Hoffman donated funds for Jessica Beshir to be a 2024 Hoffman Visiting Artist for Documentary Media, a brief filmmaker residency at Northwestern's School of Communications.{{Cite web |title=FAYA DAYI (2021) with filmmaker Jessica Beshir: Block Museum - Northwestern University |url=https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/cinema/2024/faya-dayi-2021-with-filmmaker-jessica-beshir.html |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu |language=en}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable"
! Year !! Work !! Note !! Ref | |||
| 2016 | He Who Dances on Wood | As director; documentary short | |
| 2017 | Hairat | As director; documentary short | |
| 2017 | Heroin | As director, screenwriter, executive producer, producer, and additional cinematography; documentary short | {{Cite web |title=Heroin {{!}} 2017 Tribeca Festival |url=https://www.tribecafilm.com/films/jessica-beshir-2017 |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=Tribeca}} |
| 2017 | The Gift | Television miniseries | |
| 2018 | Kings | ||
| 2021 | Faya Dayi | As director, executive producer, producer, writer, cinematographer; documentary feature film | {{Cite web |title=FAYA DAYI |url=https://www.docnyc.net/film/faya-dayi/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=DOC NYC}} |
Awards and nominations
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beshir, Jessica}}
Category:Mexican people of Ethiopian descent
Category:Mexican expatriates in the United States
Category:People from Harari Region
Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Category:American documentary filmmakers
Category:American women documentary filmmakers
Category:American documentary film directors
Category:American documentary film producers