Rahel T. Yohannes

BIOGRAPHIE

I'm an actress ,writer/director and producer, graduating from my drama course having acted in student, short and feature films. Even when I was acting in these films I was helping the student producers on set with the other departments as these were low budget productions so all help was appreciated. In 2014 I joined the independent film organisation Raindance which heavily promotes the 'you can do ityourself' and create your work whether it be writing or producing or directing or any of the myriad of film departments. I attended scriptwriting, shortfilmmaking, producing and directing courses. I'm curious by nature and I'm also hoping to take adocumentary filmmaking course as I always used to say years ago that if I ever directed it would be a documentary so it’s interesting as the short I directed is semi-autobiographical. I love the fact of discovering talent in the cast and crew and then fitting the pieces of the puzzle together. At Raindance I attended a scriptwriting course then within a month I had written, produced and acted in my first short, a romantic comedy film titled' Sarah's(Hopefully) Wonderful Wedding'(SHWW). It is semi-autobiographical so I believe that is why it flowed out quite easily and speedily and is a passion project that is close to my heart. The producer on my short film was also working on a featurefilm and dropped out at the last minute, it was a baptism of fire. I had already location scouted, cast the actors and sought out crew so most of the work was done thankfully. I became a producer bydefault and loved creating it. I also sketch so I storyboarded the scenes which spurred me on to direct a project. The first short I wrote and produced was ‘Sarah’s (Hopefully Wonderful Wedding-SHWW), a comedic clash of two cultures, black and Indian in the lead up to a mixed race marriage. I had so many scenes that I hadn't used upon which I had a light bulb moment. I developed the scenes into a feature. In the meantime I submitted the short to a number of festivals and it was officially selected at the Delhi Shorts International Film Festival, Portobello Film Festival and Birmingham Black International Film Festival. I attend the cannes festival every year, the aim is to foster relationships with sales agents, distributors, producers and financiers. The second short that I directed ,wrote and produced (2016) is called ‘Rendezvous B4 the Wedding’ Strange events at a house at a pre wedding family gathering reveals an urgency for those gone before us to instill to those on earth to return to feeling love. It was another scene from the feature with an updated new surreal supernatural element to it. It was really fun and educational to be able to focus and be specific with a scene. I’m currently developing SHSWW into a feature, I have so far shown slices of life, a couple of scenes from it in all the shorts I’ve produced and directed. My last short ‘Sarah’s Restaurant Rendezvous (2017) sees Sarah mysteriously meet both her ex and her fiancé at the same café. ‘Feel the Rhythm’ is my latest film.

FILMOGRAPHIE