Minnesota’s robust arts scene and its location as home to one of the largest East African communities in the country have made it a destination for filmmakers from the diaspora who want to create and showcase new work.

This year, the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival will feature nine Somali films along with a showcase of short films by seven East African filmmakers titled “What We Carry.”

Abdi Mohamed, 32, is a filmmaker and storyteller from St. Paul’s East Side and curator of the showcase. 

As a part of his previous work with the Film Society, Mohamed curated the “Images of Africa” series last year that celebrated African diaspora communities in Minnesota through cinema from around the globe. His experience with “Images of Africa,” allowed him to see firsthand the cinematic talent in the African diaspora. 

Mohamed could sense that the interest to see East African stories in theaters in particular matched the interest of filmmakers to show their work to the audiences here. 

“It’s a point of pride for a lot of East Africans to be able to screen their work in Minnesota  because there’s such a large population here of our diasporas — whether Somali, Oromo, Sudanese and more. Over the years, there’s been this growing appreciation of cinema and East African stories being on the big screen,” he said.  

Mohamed says filmmakers he reached out to for the event were excited because of family ties to the state and the opportunity to show their work to their communities in Minnesota even though many themselves are from sizable East African diasporas such as Toronto, London and Seattle. 

The title “What We Carry” is an ode to the shared regional background and overlapping identities that bond East Africans across borders. 

“All of the different films talk about characters who have something to carry or something that they’re fighting or working towards. That’s what it is to be an immigrant or diaspora, you carry the weight of something. That’s the commentary behind the title and why I chose these select films for this block,” Mohamed said. 

In total there are seven films chosen for the program. One of the films, “How to Hide It” was directed by Somali-born and London-raised boxer and model Ramla Ali and her husband Richard Moore. The film follows the lead, played by Ramla, who finds herself in a spiritual crisis after playing a lottery ticket. 

Ali says her film is right at home in Minnesota because of the shared Somali heritage.

“From a young age my mom has never taught us about qabiil [tribes], she’s always taught me that we as Somalis are all one. Even though I don’t have a direct connection to Minnesota, I feel  because there’s so many of my brothers and sisters there, I feel that is my connection,” Ali said. 

“I’ve witnessed a sudden increase in seeing more East African films not only streaming but also in the cinema, which is amazing because for such a long time, we didn’t have that sort of representation. It only takes one person for others to think, ‘Wow, I can do this as well.’ I’m glad that someone took that brave step many years ago because now there’s an increase in more East African films and more East Africans being creatives [and] getting into directing and producing.” 

Another film, “Against the Odds” was made by Burtukaan Adaree. 

Adaree, 27, was born in Burayu, Ethiopia, and has lived in Seattle for most of her life. Adaree collaborated with graphic artists and fashion designers from Minnesota in the making of the film, which tells the story of an Oromo girl who financially supports her family back home and then is unexpectedly laid off. 

“I’m excited for them to also see their work represented in film and a visual storytelling format,” she said. 

Adaree is excited to have her film shown to an Oromo audience. 

“This was my first time working on a film and also seeing a film that had my native tongue in it in the context of an American film. I’m very excited for people to see that part of the culture shown. Language is especially important, a lot of people in my generation that were born in Ethiopia, came here when they were young, or were born here- have lost touch with their native tongue, a lot of us have forgotten it or relied too heavily on English. I’m very excited to tell a story that’s very common within our community and be able to tell it as authentically as possible through our language.” she said. 

Sunday’s showcase will be the first three of screenings; some of the films are scheduled to be shown at the Heights Theater in May and at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in July.