The Hope of New Flowers

In Hanna Leka’s multimedia project The Hope of New Flowers Hanna explores her father’s life story beginning as a shepherd in rural Ethiopia to later rebuilding a new life in the United States. During the 1970s Derg regime , her father participated in Ethiopia’s civil war as a guerrilla medic, fled to become a refugee in Sudan, and eventually became a physician in California. Through film and photography, Hanna documents contemporary moments that echo her father’s memories and revisits significant locations of his life in Ethiopia. Included are her father’s family and friends that carry their own stories as Ethiopian immigrants to the U.S., and as participants in her father’s life. Through the unraveling of the intimate story of her father’s journey of upheaval and hope, Hanna is able to find the stories of many Ethiopians who are rebuilding the legacy and identity of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian diaspora.