Independent Lens
Down a Dark Stairwell
A Chinese American cop shoots and kills an innocent black man; suddenly two marginalized communities must navigate an uneven criminal justice system together.
Higher 15
An investigation into a family’s hidden past in Ethiopia uncovers the immigrant experience, what it means to belong, and the freedom found in discovering the truth.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Producer/Director
Ameha Molla
Ameha Molla is a creative who has led the development and execution of short films and original work for brands like Apple and Genentech. Ameha is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Stars Collective grantee and a fellow of the Black Public Media 360 Incubator Program and the BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship.
Producer
Rajal Pitroda
Rajal Pitroda is a producer of fiction and nonfiction films. She most recently produced Down a Dark Stairwell, which premiered at the 2020 True/False Film Festival. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Black Public Media, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM, and others.
- Other ITVS Films
- Down a Dark Stairwell
- The Gas Station Attendant
- You Don't Know My Name
We fund untold stories for public media.
Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS.
The Film
Director Ameha Molla learns the untold story of his uncle Kiflu, a revolutionary who fought against Ethiopia’s brutal Derg regime in the 1970s. Kiflu was imprisoned and tortured at the infamous Higher 15 prison in Addis Ababa, but he ultimately escapes. He is smuggled into the United States where he begins a new life in the Denver suburbs, working at the U.S. Postal Service and raising a family. Thirty-three years after his arrival, he comes face to face with the prison guard who had tortured him and others decades earlier. Ameha discovers his uncle’s story in a Denver Post article which reveals that Kiflu was the lead witness in a federal investigation against this guard, a suspected former war criminal from Addis Ababa who killed over 200 people.
Ameha investigates his family’s past as they fled from war and violence, unearthing the real reason behind their immigration and their anguish at being unable to return. He grapples with the impact of this legacy on the next generation, in light of his own experience growing up as an Ethiopian-American in suburban Denver.
Higher 15 blends poignant interviews with both personal and historical footage. The film centers a family coming to terms with their past, as they release the secrets which have kept them from truly knowing each other for so long.
