TAKE ME TO FENDIKA
An award-winning documentary film by first-time director Cisco Bradley, illuminating the vibrancy of Ethiopian traditional and innovative music and dance cultures at what has been called “the best venue in Africa”—Fendika. In 23 minutes of performance footage shot live at Fendika, interspersed with interviews with its founder, world-renowned dancer, Melaku Belay, and others, the film tells the story of how this vital place came into being, and how it continues to provide space for artists to invent and reinvent Ethiopian modernity in dialogue with global culture.
AWARDS
Best Documentary USA Africa International Film Festival (Cannes)
Best Documentary 2nd African Cultural Film Festival (Houston)
Best International Documentary, Zepstone International Film & Music Festival (Utah)
Best Director of a Documentary Short, London Vision Film Festival (UK)
Best Documentary Luanda International Pan-African Film Festival (Luanda)
CREDITS
Cisco Bradley – Director, Melaku Belay – Subject, Briana Monet – Editor, Lily Iserson – Producer, Salem Daniel – Co-Producer, Setshi Ford – Director of Photography
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Cisco Bradley is professor of history at the Pratt Institute. He is a scholar of the music of the African diaspora and is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and film director. His film, Take Me to Fendika (2024) has screened at festivals on four continents and has won numerous awards. He has published four books including: I Hear Freedom: The Great Migration, Free Jazz, and Black Power (Columbia University Press, 2026), The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront (Duke University Press, 2023), and Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker (Duke University Press, 2021). He has also worked as a jazz journalist and founded JazzRightNow.com in 2013. He directs the Music and Migration Lab at Pratt and also the longstanding Free Jazz Oral History Project which has conducted over 500 oral history interviews with musicians since 2013.
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The founding director of Fendika Cultural Center, Melaku Belay is a world-renowned Ethiopian dancer and an ambassador for Ethiopia’s music and dance. In 2018, he became the founding president of Ethiopian Dance Art Association. Melaku was celebrated as a finalist for the 2018 Ye Bego Sew Award (Ethiopian Person of the Year), in the category of raising global awareness of Ethiopian culture. Melaku’s international honors include a 2015 Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (France), a 2019 Visa for Music Award (Morocco), a 2020 Prince Clause Award (the Netherlands), a 2021 Ethiopian Role Model Award, and a 2022 TED Fellow.
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NYC PREMIERE
Special event at Anthology Film Archives produced by Continuum with a post-screening conversation featuring director Cisco Bradley, with Ras Burnett, Alystyre Julian, and audience Q&A. Dec 14, 2025
Continuum Culture & Arts strives to empower artists, grassroots organizations, and communities by helping them produce and disseminate work, by fostering cultural exchange, and by ensuring their legacies. In collaborating on Take Me to Fendika with Cisco Bradley, Continuum provided organizational and fiscal support that enabled the filmmakers to create the work, spread the word, spark conversations wherever it has been screened, and ensure that the storytelling reaches diverse audiences. Going forward we would like to form new partnerships that bring the film and its universal message to new audiences in new communities.
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Upcoming Screenings:
January 30, 2026 - 7th Nepal Cultural International Film Festival. Kathmandu, Nepal. Asian premiere.
September 1, 2026 - FilMuzik Arts Festival, Gioiosa Ionica, Italy
Past Screenings:
October 25, 2024 - 2nd African Cultural Film Festival, Houston, TX (won best documentary) [world premiere]
October 26, 2024 - Round the Globe Film & Music Festival, online (finalist for best film inspiring hope)
January 12, 2025 - Stonykill Coffee and Records, Chatham, NY
February 1, 2025 - San Diego Black Film Festival, San Diego, CA (finalist for best short)
April 5, 2025 - Erte Ale Restaurant, St. Paul, MN
April 7, 2025 - Carleton College, Northfield, MN
May 20, 2025 - Spring Quarterfinals of the Zepstone International Film and Music Festival, Salt Lake City, UT (won best international documentary, advanced to finals in September)
May 23, 2025 - Fire Museum, Philadelphia, PA
June 19, 2025 - Virginia Black Film Festival (finalist for best trailer)
August 9, 2025 - Africa USA International Film Festival, Cinema des Arcades, Cannes, France: Winner Best Documentary
August 9, 2025 - Africa Habari Festival, Toronto, ON, Canada [Canadian premiere]
September 7-14, 2025 - 3rd Zepstone International Film & Music Festival, winner Best International Documentary
September 16, 2025 - Hyatt Regency Hotel/Fendika Cultural Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [African premiere]
October 3 -10, 2025 - Malabo International Music and Film Festival, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (finalist for best short/best documentary)
Future prospects:
Take Me to Fendika is being considered for 32 additional festivals around the world, including in the US, UK, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Georgia (the country), Turkey, Serbia, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Angola, Nepal, Ireland, Spain, Greece, India, Italy, and South Africa.