ABOUT ABYSSURDIAN

Abyssurdian Productions is a creative studio with its head in California and its heart in Eritrea.

Founded by Eritrean American filmmaker Sephora Woldu, the work is informed by doing a lot with a little - scrappy excellence passed down from generations of making something out of nothing, and translating these influences into award-winning stories. Projects range from films to art festivals to multimedia exhibits. Recent coverage includes The Today Show, NPR, okayafrica, La Vanguardia, and SF Weekly.

Abyssurdian is a portmanteau of the key elements in her artist practice: the abyss between her two countries and the absurdity of being at home in neither and both.

ABOUT SEPHORA WOLDU

Named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Sephora Woldu has won acclaim with audiences from the American Film Institute to Eritrean community centers spanning Philadelphia to San Jose.

Sephora received the Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award (Indie Memphis), Balalaica Filmmaker Award (Moscow Indie Film Festival), and the Special Jury Prize for Bold Innovation (RiverRun International Film Festival) for her Tigrinya/ English debut feature length narrative film, Life is Fare. Her work has displayed at art institutions from Lagos Biannual in Nigeria to PRIZM Art Fair during Art Basel Miami Beach.

Sephora also co-founded the Asmara Indie Film Festival, was featured on Humans of NY, and studied graduate architecture because among other things, she is full of surprises.