Gibbi an immersive analog virtual reality short, reimagines the three-day massacre of Addis Ababa residents on Yekatit 12 (February 19, 1937), during the occupation by Fascist Italy. The massacre was triggered by an assassination attempt on the Italian Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani by two Eritrean students. In reprisal, Fascist forces rampaged through Addis Ababa, killing thousands of unarmed civilians. Violence was used deliberately as a terror tactic to enforce colonial domination. Houses were burned while residents were locked inside, unable to escape. Civilians were executed in brutal ways: tied and dragged by trucks, hanged, decapitated, thrown from planes, and used for target practice by Blackshirt militias.

Over 700 people sought refuge in the American compound, while the massacre claimed as much as one-fifth of the city’s population. Unfortunately, according to Ian L. Campbell, there is no record of what happened to them after they left the compound.