The animated short film ‘A Cow in the Sky,’ premiering at the Tribeca Festival, is based on a chilling crime in 1988 that took the life of an Ethiopian man who came to study in the United States.

C. Fraser Press and Darren Press wrote and directed the film, playing in competition at Tribeca as part of the animated shorts program curated by Whoopi Goldberg. We have your first look at the film in the trailer below.

“On his very first solo flight as a pilot, a young immigrant finds himself wrestling with his past and his identity when his engine suddenly fails and his plane free falls,” reads a description of the film. “Based on the true story of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian college student killed in Portland, OR in 1988 by racist skinheads in a crime inspired by notorious white supremacist Tom Metzger, A Cow in the Sky is a film about the pain and personal triumph of a son left behind.”

The next public screening for A Cow in the Sky is set for Saturday, June 17 (a press and industry screening will take place Tuesday morning at Tribeca). It will be available for viewing through the festival’s At Home platform from June 19 through July 2.

“’I have a cow in the sky but cannot drink her milk.’” This Ethiopian adage that our protagonist recalls hearing often from his grandfather beautifully illustrates the struggle between one’s dream and one’s reality,” the directors note. “Our short film, A Cow in the Sky, is based on a true story and one that we felt needed to be told.”

The directors continue in their statement, “The murder of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant and college student in Portland, OR in 1988 and the subsequent criminal convictions and most famously the historic civil trial that followed, started a ripple effect that spread from Portland to San Diego and quickly the entire United States. Mulugeta’s death and the civil trial led by the Southern Poverty Law Center, financially crippled America’s most notorious white supremacist, Tom Metzger, and his organization WAR, White Aryan Resistance. The trial became a blueprint for fighting hate groups and led to the current system of tracking hate crimes in America. Darren [Press] was a young law school student in California at the time and found himself caught in these ripples as he worked closely with James McElroy, the lawyer tasked with collecting the monetary judgment for Mulugeta’s family from WAR and its leader Tom Metzger.”

The filmmakers comment, “We chose to blend animation, showing our protagonist’s flight and his memories, with actual historical video footage and sound from the time of the murder, including Metzger and the infamous trial. This footage is used to both highlight the demons our protagonist is wrestling with and to serve as points of origin for both the events that shaped our story and aspects of America as we are living it today.”

“The process of making this film has been humbling and inspiring, even more so as we assembled a diverse and talented group of animators and artists, including Grammy nominated hip hop artist Aminé who is from Portland and of Ethiopian descent, to help us realize our vision.”

C. Fraser Press and Darren Press say they hope their film “brings insight to the immigrant experience, exposes parts of American history and current culture many today are trying to erase, and is a poignant piece about a young boy coming to terms with his past and embracing himself.”

The screenwriters of A Cow in the Sky are Darren Press and C. Fraser Press. Producers are Darren Press, C. Fraser Press and Larry Hirschhorn. EP’s are Darren Press, C. Fraser Press, Larry Hirschhorn, John Andrews, Amine, and Kirsten Rota. The animation director is Gregory Garay and the music is composed by Robert Lydecker.

Source: Matthew Carey | Deadline