Sacred Grounds

This is a a preliminary trailer, we do not own the rights to the music – song Addis by the band Om – Advaitic Songs (Drag City)

Sacred Grounds is a feature-length documentary that follows Ethiopian American artist Eyakem Gulilat as he travels across the United States performing the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. More than a ritual of hospitality, each ceremony becomes a space for diverse groups to gather, reflect, and share stories, revealing coffee's remarkable ability to foster connection across cultures.

As Eyakem creates these communal experiences, he embarks on a deeply personal journey to reconnect with his own heritage. His search ultimately leads him back to Ethiopia for the first time in nearly forty years, where he encounters family, tradition, and the landscapes that shaped the world's oldest coffee culture.

Interweaving Eyakem's journey with the origins of coffee itself, Sacred Grounds centers Ethiopia's profound influence on a commodity that transformed the world. Rather than offering a broad survey of the global coffee industry, the film centers on the intimate rhythms of a small family-run coffee farm in the forests of the Limmu region, not far from where coffee is believed to have originated. Through the lives of the people who cultivate it, the film examines the challenges of sustaining centuries-old traditions amid a rapidly changing global marketplace.

At its heart, Sacred Grounds is a meditation on memory, identity, belonging, and the enduring power of shared ritual. It asks how a simple cup of coffee can carry history, preserve culture, and create spaces where people find common ground across generations and continents.

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This is an independently produced documentary.

We are committed to raising additional funds and are seeking donors and sponsors along with limited edition art pieces and sales of a limited edition line of roasted Ethiopian coffee with proceeds going directly toward the film’s production.

If you are interested in supporting the film in any way, please contact us below.