Fathia Absie (Fadxiya Cabsiye)

Who is she?

Fathia Absie is a Somali-American writer, producer, actor and filmmaker (Wikipedia, Fathia Absie). She has made documentaries and fiction films, and published a graphic novel (same source). She co-founded Eat With Muslims, which brings Muslims and non-Muslims together over dinner (same source).

Work before film

She was a social worker (Wikipedia). She worked for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in Columbus, the University of Washington in Seattle, and Voice of America in Washington, D.C. (same source). She moved to Minnesota around 2010 and joined ECHO, a Minnesota organisation serving immigrant communities, in 2013 (same source). See Somalis in Minneapolis and St Paul.

Films and books

• Broken Dreams (2011): her first documentary, about the community's response to the recruitment of young Somali men in Minnesota by armed groups (Wikipedia). Wikipedia notes that the FBI opened one of its largest counter-terrorism investigations into the disappearances (same source).
• The Imperceptible Peacemaker (2014): a self-published graphic novel about an invisible hero fighting injustice (same source).
• The Lobby (2015): a fiction film about a white man and a Somali-American woman, which she wrote, directed and starred in. It premiered at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival in April 2015 (same source).
• A Stray (2016) (same source).

In 2017 she acted in Eric Tretbar's film First Person Plural (same source). Wikipedia says she began work on Grapes of Heaven, a story set in Berbera that draws on the poet Elmi Boodhari (same source). She has also hosted programmes on Twin Cities PBS (same source).

In short

A Somali-American filmmaker and writer whose films include Broken Dreams (2011) and The Lobby (2015).