400 Miles To Freedom

Film Synopsis

In 1984, the Beta Israel, a secluded 2,500-year-old community of observant Jews in the northern Ethiopian mountains, fled a dictatorship and began a secret and dangerous journey of escape. Co-director Avishai Mekonen, then a 10 year old boy, was among them. 400 MILES TO FREEDOM follows his story as he breaks the 20 year silence around the brutal kidnapping he endured as a child in Sudan during his community's exodus out of Africa, and in so doing explores issues of immigration and racial diversity in Judaism.

Rabbi Capers Funye and Avishai Mekonen

Directed and Produced By

AVISHAI YEGANYAHU MEKONEN
SHARI ROTHFARB MEKONEN

Executive Producers

DIANE KAUFMANN TOBIN & DR. GARY A. TOBIN z”l
BE’CHOL LASHON, INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH & COMMUNITY RESEARCH

STEVEN FISCHLER & JOEL SUCHER
PACIFIC STREET FILMS

Music by

GIL TALMI

Cinematography

  YAHEL HERZOG
  JOHN MIGLIETTA
  DANIEL MIRAN
  URI ACKERMAN

Sound

  YUVAL SUSSLER
  DANIEL KEDEM
  NADAV ARONOWITZ

Edited by

  SHARI ROTHFARB MEKONEN
  AVISHAI MEKONEN
  MARIN SANDER-HOLZMAN

Co-Writer

SCOTT RUBIN

Story Consultant

FERNANDA ROSSI

Consultant Editor

JULIA BACHA

Associate Producers

SHIRI BENAMI
JOHN TRICOLI

Production Assistants

KATSUMI FUNAHASHI
NGIZA METZGER

Post Production Advisor

LACEY SCHWARTZ

Post Production Services

DUART FILM & VIDEO

Music Editor

LILY VIRGINIA

Songs by

  EJIGAYEHU "GIGI" SHIBABAW
  And
  GIL TALMI

Photographs by

  ALIZA AUERBACH
  ZION OZERI
  JAIME PERMUTH
  JOAN ROTH
  AVISHAI MEKONEN

Archival Stills

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ELLIS ISLAND IMMIGRATION MUSEUM

Archival Footage

  MICHA SHAGRIR
  SIMCHA JACOBOVICI
  SANFORD & SON, SONY PICTURES
  THE SAMMY DAVIS JR. ESTATE