—  About

Gobez Media is a boutique production company that produces innovative content in Canada and Ethiopia. The company aims to create content that pushes boundaries and shares African stories and perspectives on the world stage.

Our documentaries have been broadcast on TV and screened at festivals worldwide. We have produced documentaries, music content, feature films, and factual tv programming in collaboration with companies from Canada, Germany, South Africa, Japan, Israel, France, the USA and the United Kingdom.

— Tamara Dawit, Senior Producer

Tamara is an Ethiopian-Canadian award-winning filmmaker and arts industry executive. For ten years, Tamara was the 411 Initiative For Change's executive director, a Canadian charity that produced social justice-themed arts content for young audiences. Through 411, she developed multi-arts content and campaigns with Keep A Child Alive, Kids Help Phone, Amnesty International and other partners.

Tamara has produced television content for CBC, MTV, Radio Canada, and NHK, among other networks. As well she has overseen the production of digital projects and campaigns for Plan International, Girl Effect, Corus/Kids Can Press, Make Poverty History and other clients.

In Canada, Tamara was a founding board member of REMC (The Racial Equity Media Collective), a think tank working on research and policy work in the screen-based industries. For nearly three years, she was a senior advisor to the Canada Media Fund on growth and inclusion strategies.

In Africa, she has consulted on film policies and research for DW Akademie, EUNIC, Afreximbank and the Ethiopian government. Tamara is a founding member of both Ethiopia Creates and the East African Screen Collective. She works as a mentor to directors and producers for professional development programs run by organizations such as EAVE, Hot Docs, the Documentary Organization of Canada and DW Akademie.

Tamara has pitched films at market events including, Berlinale Co Production Market, RIDM Forumm, Cinemart, Cannes Doc Corner, Durban Film Market, Gotham, Good Pitch, Miradas Doc Forum, IDFA Forum, Hot Docs Forum and Dealmaker and the TIFF Financing Forum. Tamara is an alumnus of the Berlinale and Durban Talents, EAVE and Apost and has been awarded fellowships by Docs in Progress, Logan Nonfiction and TIFF. Her film Finding Sally won the Doc Institute Vanguard Award, Adiaha Award and the Gordon Parks Award For Black Excellence in Filmmaking, among others. Tamara is a 2023 Chalmer Arts Fellow.

— Ashu Kersma, Producer

Ashu is a factual and commercial content producer who has managed productions for international shoots and Ethiopian productions. In addition, he manages government relations, clearances, crew, logistics, and security for Gobez’s productions. He participated in the Generation Africa producers lab in 2019.

— Gobez

The Amharic concept gobez means to be smart, brilliant, clever, strong and brave. In Ethiopia, someone who is gobez might beat an opponent in battle, endure a long fast, or show great skill and determination at a difficult job.

— Press Coverage

Finding Sally: Political cinema from Ethiopia - Deutsche Welle

CBC and Hot Docs’ Finding Sally digs deep into Ethiopia’s diplomatic past for a whopper of a family secret -GlobeandMail

New doc Finding Sally uncovers how a Canadian university grad became a Marxist fugitive in Ethiopia - CBC

Exclusive clip: Tamara Mariam Dawit talks Hot Docs film “Finding Sally” - Realscreen

Government support has Ethiopian biz ready to boom - Variety

Guest host Piya Chattopadhyay spoke with Tamara Dawit. She is co-founder of the 411 Initiative for Change, a community group that uses arts programming to empower young women in schools. - CBC Radio, Metro Morning

Tour tells kids about HIV risk - Kamloops Daily News

Encountering the oil-dependant, post civil-war South Sudan is not something many young Torontonians get to put on their resumes. Matt Galloway spoke with Tamara Dawit, who just returned from working in the world's newest country to get her impressions of life there.   - CBC Radio, Metro Morning

411, not 911  - Torontoist 

Charleswood School students show their girl power - Winnipeg Free Press

411 TV Aims to Empower 7,000 Female Students - Samaritan 

Hip-hop helps young offenders - Macleans Magazine