FOCUS GROUP 1
Interview with members of The Sierra Leone Film Industry Labor and Marketing Guild (S.L.F.L.M)
Papa Shaw: An editor, producer, camera operator and an independent filmmaker in Sierra Leone.
Kadie Sesay: An actress and a producer.
Benjamin Dominic: A writer and a producer.
Brima Sheriff: A writer and director.
Ibrahim Sorie Samura: An actor and director
Mohamed Foday Kamara: Owner of a production company, Bintumani Pictures.
PS: My name is Papa Shaw, commonly known as Edwin in the media world. I am an editor, producer and also a camera operator. I am an independent filmmaker in Sierra Leone. With my experience as a filmmaker, I can say that filmmaking in Sierra Leone is not that easy. There are a lot of things you have to go through to get your film done. Concerning the challenges I face in editing, I think we need a proper training facility so that we can get our films cut very well. We get our training from the experience we get from friends and international people that come to Sierra Leone make movies. The experience we get is the experience that we implement in making our own films. Also, as a camera operator, I got my experience from an international organisation called I RUN SIERRA LEONE, where I started camera operating and I was taught by a filmmaker from New York. He basically taught me how to use the camera. From there I decided to go into filmmaking. I started filmmaking because I believe it to be my career and I believe I can make a living as a filmmaker.
KS: My name is Kadie Baihe Sesay and I am an actress and a producer. I ventured once into producing a movie and until now I haven’t finished producin. It was not a good experience though because we funded that movie on our own. My friends and I went out and scouted for money and tried to produce the movie, but up to this point we haven’t produced it yet, so I cannot say I am a full producer. Acting, however, has been my passion since childhood. In Sierra Leone it is so sad, because even if they call you to act a movie, they cannot pay you because there are no funds or budgets for it. So you go and act freely and even after sales, they do not call you to give you something — not even a Coke for the role you played in the movie. It has been a series of ups and downs. There is no story to write home about the movie industry in Sierra Leone.
BD: My name is Benjamin Dominic; I am a writer and a producer. My experience as producer so far is that the film industry in Sierra Leone is very young. Some of the constraints that we have start with the actors. Most of them are not trained and there are no institutions to train them in Sierra Leone, so it is always a big effort for someone who wants to do a movie to take up that challenge.
In the area of actually making the films it is sometimes not easy for us to sort out our locations because most people here do not really understand what films are all about. They do shy away sometimes from giving us locations for our movies and even when we meet institutions that are already established, they sometimes find it difficult to give us some of the things we need in films, such as props. One of my friends had this experience. They wanted to use police uniforms, guns, and the like in making his film. It wasn’t easy. He had to go through a lot of protocols to do so. This at times derails your story. If you have a story that talks about police, the vans, the guns, etc., the actual process of shooting it becomes difficult because they do not understand why they should give you their materials to do your films.
Another constraint that we face in the industry is funding. To raise funds to make films in an environment where filmmaking is new it is not easy. Not everybody knows much about filmmaking, so they look at it as something that is not lucrative. So, funding has been a problem. With most of the films we do here, the actors who have a passion for filmmaking come together and raise funds to do films. When the actors themselves are raising funds to do their movies, that just tells you what the film is going to look like
Lastly, I just want to say that workshops would really help all of us in filmmaking but we are not getting workshops that will train the actors and filmmakers in totality. That includes cinematographers and cameramen, DOP, sound engineers and all the departments that come together to make a film. I want to believe that if all these things are put in place we would do better.
BS: My name is Brima Sheriff and I am a writer and director. I’ll tell you about my experience when I ventured into filmmaking in 2005. I did my first movie which primarily focused on female genital mutilation. I come from a very deprived community and as a result I used to write a lot of poems and songs as a way of consoling the soul. Then I became a member of an theater group and when I joined Amnesty International my capacity was further built by the human rights training that I got, so most of my movies are really tied to human rights issues. That’s how I ventured into the first movie.
The challenges were that the actors were not trained and I was not equally and adequately trained. So then the very first thing I had to do was most of my training online by going on to the internet, studying about how to direct a movie and learning what it entails to do a movie. So that’s how I did it. I was responsible for funding the movie and transportation for rehearsals. I worked with a location manager and gave him transport to find locations. I was responsible for paying the editor. I was responsible for producing the entire movie. It was a real challenge because by 2005 Sierra Leone was at its embryonic stage of movie making and people were not appreciative of Sierra Leone movies. I also faced challenges with sound. I didn’t know how to direct my cameraman and he was not an expert in doing that. He was a television producer and we used him for the very first film. These were the key challenges I faced in 2005.
After that, I ventured into a second movie and unfortunately I could not release it. It was supposed to be released on June 16, but my house got burned down in January this year and I lost all my equipment. Still, I think I gained a lot of experience with the first challenge.
First, I know that making a movie is a business. It is not anything that has to do with fun. Secondly, I noticed that with doing a movie, you need a certain capacity, so what I had to do was talk to other directors, look for other people who had experience and most times I’d call peer discussion meetings and I would share my ideas with colleagues. I got a lot of capacity out of that. Generally, making movies in Sierra Leone is very expensive. It is very difficult.
Another big challenge is that there is still a dissenting voice in Sierra Leone in terms of who is an expert in making movies and who is not an expert. I have noticed that we are divided along this line. There are a group of people who just believe that without them being involved, films are not good in this country. I think that’s the challenge. They have the expertise and we do recognise the expertise, but there is a very big block between them and most of us with not really very strong capacities who are interested in doing movies.
ISS: My name is Ibrahim Sorie Samura. I’m an actor and a DOP. My experience in the movie world in Sierra Leone is not that good because I have encountered a lot of problems. Initially, when I came into the industry, I wanted to be an actor but I found it so hard and it was difficult for me to make it acting, so I decided to go to the back of the camera and learn to be a camera operator. When I took that step, it was not an easy task for me again,and it was only through the help of God that I met a German who was a documentary filmmaker. He had come to do a film called Lost Identity and I spoke with him and told him that I wanted to learn from him because there was no film school in Sierra Leone. He said he would teach me how to operate the camera.
After that, we went on the first project which was Breaking the Rules. There I started gaining experience operating the camera. We did another which was Lost Identity where I served as the second cameraman, operating the second camera with him working side by side. He was teaching me to know the angles with which I should take my shot and which I should not take my shot.
I was of the opinion that there were no professionals in Sierra Leone, but then I got in touch with the Sierra Leone Film Guild. I met people in the movie world, got close to them and gained experience from them. I have learned a lot and now I can say I can do a movie on my own with all the experience I have from producers, writers, directors, actors and actresses in the guilds.
Initially we called on the government to aid with funding as there was no funding and then there was nobody responsible for film and so the government had no one they could entrust with funds. After forming this guild, and I believe it has all the experienced filmmakers in Sierra Leone, we went back to the government and they tried to award a certificate to the guild which was a good step. It was something that I appreciated because I believe it will help the industry in terms of providing funds and encouraging investors to come in and invest their resources in the movie world. I was very happy the day they awarded the certificate to us.
In filmmaking we are having problems with locations and using people’s houses. It is ridiculous for people in this country not to give their houses to people like us who are passionate about doing movies. Maybe it’s because we just came from the rebel war so no one trusts each other. I believe in this peaceful environment that we have known and they should be the ones helping us with locations and other things for us to climb up in the film industry.
To round up, I would like to call on investors to come in to help with film schools, to help the film guild so that we can groom more people and also so we can be trained to make more professional movies.
MFK: My name is Mohamed Foday Kamara, popularly known as Meddf. I am a proud member of the Sierra Leone Film Guild, co-founder and owner of production company Bintumani Pictures. I started my filming career some 8 years ago as an actor and over the years I have metamorphosed into different things in the making of films. Initially when I started as an actor, writing was on my mind and I had a passion for writing so I taught myself how to write a script from a template I got from the internet. Over the years I have been writing scripts that people have been looking forward to for productions, but unfortunately it is just a hobby, because after writing a script you hardly get a producer who will say I like this thing, let me make a movie out of it. I once had a guy tell me that he wanted to give me less than 100 USD for a script which I wrote, and I told him no because I know what it takes. That took me to another level. I decided to start producing.
Just like many filmmakers in this country the experience is a bitter one. The country is not open to filmmaking yet. People are not that interested. I’m not talking about those with the talent, I am talking about investors. It is hard to find someone who could be an executive producer or a company that will invest. They are not interested.
I co-wrote and produced Breaking the Rules. It was a hit in the country because it sold aver 20,000 copies, which is considered a big deal in Sierra Leone, but when you go to the internet and see how many copies are sold worldwide 20,000 copies is just too small.
Honestly being a producer…. It’s a shame I am saying this on tape but, the person who ended up doing the marketing for the film ended up giving me the producer, Le500 for a tape which is something like 0.1 dollars. I could not even pay my actors, but I spoke to them and some of them understood and some of them are still after me and honestly I have nothing to say to them. The shameful part of it is that my film is still selling but I’m not getting any royalties for it.
The marketing structure in this country is so poor, that people are not willing to invest, and the few who do come on board will do so only after the production. They will market your product and you get almost nothing for it. If you say you are not giving it to them, then you might as well just keep it in your cupboard for eternity because you are not a marketer and you do not have the knowhow to market your product in this country. The only option you have is them and they will use, misuse and abuse you because they are the only option.
However, we are not relenting. For some of us it is a hobby. We are doing it because we like what we do. Still, we are not getting anything.
Some of the constraints that I faced as a filmmaker, were that I had to teach myself how to write a script and how to direct. With directing you cannot read from the internet and go and direct just like that, but I have managed over the years. It has been successful locally even though I have not been able to break barriers outside Sierra Leone. At least I can walk the streets of Freetown and someone will recognise me as a filmmaker even though I am not known outside Sierra Leone.
To get a unifying voice that will speak for the film industry in Sierra Leone has been a major challenge. We see ourselves as rivals, not in a healthy atmosphere but as enemies. I remember very well, about 5 or 6 years ago when the Sierra Leone Film Guild started and it was promising, but people started looking at the guild like a production company, saying why must I join another production company when I already have one. We have seen people breaking from this guild and forming other groups with the same aims and ambitions as the one they broke from saying, “Why can’t we just come together for our own good?” Almost every day you will see people coming into this country doing documentaries, and feature length films and we are not benefiting from it. It is only recently, about 2 years ago, that I could proudly say that I was a filmmaker, but before then, filmmaking was looked at something only dropouts from school did.
If I was asked what I wanted to see in the Sierra Leonean film industry, I would say a structured body that would regulate the affairs of filmmakers in this country, beginning with those who are writers, producers and including all the key players in the industry. I would also like to see learning institutions in this country. I say this because many of us did not formally learn our craft except by reading about it on the internet.
FO: We have talked about the problems from personal perspectives. Can we now talk about the strategies for overcoming these problems? Money is hard to find everywhere. How much is the biggest amount that a film is made with here?
IK: The highest is I think 20,000 USD.
FO: If the highest is 20,000 USD, what is the average cost of making films?
IK: 5,000 USD/3,000 USD. Some people can even squeeze 1000 USD and they can make a film.
BS: That is because we have not been costing the amount of energy, the time we spend, the resources we put into it. We do not cost the human resources, the unplanned expenditures. That is why you say that.
FO: What is the average cost of a cast? Don’t you have actors, don’t you pay for locations, and don’t you have transport?
KS: When I was producing my own movie, the main actor was T.J.Cole and we paid him 2 million Leones. He told us that without that money he would not do the movie and we needed him, so we paid. In my production we paid all the cast members. Nobody will say that we didn’t, but then we ran out of money. Our editor and camera men…. (Sighing)
FO: What did they do?
KS: What did they do? Hmmm — it is a long story. Truly, it is not anything to write home about…we rent equipments, pay cast…there is no readily available amount that you can use to do a movie. We spent over 20million Leones producing that movie, that’s about 5,000USD and we have nothing to show for it.
FO: On average in terms of income, the audience pays about what Le10, 000 for a DVD?
PS: Well, the marketers sell it to the hawkers for about Le6,000 and the hawkers then sell it for about Le10,000 and most times the hawkers gain more than the producers. The producer gets Le2,000 in terms of royalty and the hawkers get Le4,000.
FO: So why are you not hawking and letting someone else make the movie?
BD: The marketers here are a big problem. As my colleague said, making some movies average 5,000 USD. This money is mainly provided by the cast, the director and the producer. By the time they finish producing the movie, they move to the next stage, where the movie has to be mass produced, posters have to be put up for advertisement and you realise that the cast and the producers have exhausted their pockets.
These people called marketers will now come in and offer to mass produce and print the movie and they offer you Le2,000 per copy. With this amount it will be very hard for you to get your investment back in 6 months, let alone pay your actors and this is the reason why we haven’t been paying our actors.
FO: If you don’t pay the actors, how will you get the actors to sign release forms, do you get their permission to use their image?
ISS: Frankly, Sierra Leone is very different from other countries. Filming is very embryonic here. It is more like a club thing, not a professional institute, not like the way big film companies operate. We reach an agreement that they receive x% if the movies is successful. If it isn’t, then we all bear the loss.
FO: So, it’s like Le 2,000 per DVD? How do you share Le2,000 per DVD amongst everybody? I am trying to understand the accounts here because one thing leads to another. If the hawkers make more than the person making the film then there is a structural problem.
ISS: It is very rare to see production companies paying their actors. They would rather say if the film is successful after production then we will give you a certain amount.
FO: You still haven’t answered the question, which is how you do get someone to sign a contract that releases them to use their image in a film if you don’t pay them?
PS: You reach an understanding, a gentleman’s agreement.
FO: How do the actors….because they are actually spending time to do this, a film, which means you are going to be there for a day or two. That means you are not elsewhere, you are working and leveraging your talent. How do they eat?
BS: Take my experience. When I was doing my movie, a village film, the entire crew moved to a village. What we did first was to pay our own cost for food, every cast member paid their own cost for food and for accommodation. I am explaining this because there are two things that are happening. First, there is enthusiasm, determination and there is willingness on the part of people to become movie stars, so they do not ask for costs. We took it as our own project, it is a project owned by us, including the determination of the people who wanted to be a part of the movie. No, there wasn’t a contract by 2005. By 2011 when I was doing another movie and I had that problem, I developed consent forms. Because of my human rights background I knew there had to be consent forms and so I developed a consent form that they signed. I was responsible for costumes and I was responsible for transportation to go to locations. We projected the contracts, saying this is the cost that you will pay me, as my colleague said, IF the movie is successful.
FO: How do you know the movie will be successful?
BS: It is only a fool that will go to sleep when his ass is on fire. These people are a part of the entire production system. They know what it takes to print and how to distribute. They know the costs involved and sometimes they are even part of the public relations team.
FO: Can you tell me more about the actual filmmaking? When you say you made a film for a thousand dollars, describe it to me. Who knows anything about the equipment that you use.
PS: We are using HDV cameras, Z5, Z1 and then even the X-F 300 Canon. That is the recent camera as of now in town. We pay 100 USD to rent it for a day.
FO: Does the writer get paid? And, do they actually write out a proper script or is it something you explain to them?
PS: Not at all. Most times the writers are also the directors.
BD: In some cases the scripts are being purchased, but in the case of the producer or the director writing the script, he will have to explain everything to the actors and have rehearsals where they will rehearse with the script until he feels his actors are ready to shoot.
FO: How do you do your post-production?
BD: In post-production, the cameraman and editor do not compromise Even if they are part of your group, they will break out of your group if you do not pay them. In post-production, you take your movie to the editor and you have to pay him. Where we have the problem is with marketing, after post-production.
FO: Why do you not take this film to the theatres?
BD: We do take these films out to the theatre, but let me break it down for you. I have done two premieres and to be frank with you, it does not pay. For instance, if you want to take your movie to the cinemas, your group will have to write out invitation cards for patrons, chief patrons and your ordinary cards. There are also expenses at the cinema. The halls are not that cheap. You pay like a million plus in some cases….
FO: Do you promote these films?
BD: Promoting our films also lies in the hands of the people we call marketers because we do not have the money to promote the film.
FO: In Nigeria, the marketer will provide the budget for the film. You cannot get a free actor anywhere in Nigeria. You cannot get a free anything. You have to pay for everything. The marketer gives you money to make the film, the marketer promotes the film, and the marketer pays for the premiere. So is it a question of your marketers getting away with a lot here, because if you pay for the film and the marketer just sits and collects it and makes equal amounts of money because he just makes copies, and even the hawker makes more, is that not a structural problem?
PS: People like the ones you are describing are coming around. We have a marketer now. Let’s say for example, there’s a script, and I want to do a film. The marketer will ask, “What is the budget for the movie?” If it is low budget, then I will sponsor it and then I will do the marketing. So yes, I think we are starting to get those kinds of marketers and I think they are foreign. What they do in other countries is what they are trying to implement here.
FO: Is there anything the Television Company is doing to support the industry?
BD: I would like to say that the television people are not doing much to support the industry because when we do our movie trailers, with which we advertise, they charge us exorbitantly and they don’t compromise.
FO: Has the TV station ever commissioned a film?
Everybody: In our own case we have never been commissioned to do a movie or a documentary.
FO: So what is the film guild doing? That’s where I am going. You have a guild and the purpose of this guild is to protect the individual filmmaker by creating environments interfacing with institutions to create a situation where you make films profitably and make films comfortably. What’s the film guild about?
PS: We just set up the film guild. In the past there was no guild, there was no structure.
FO: So why did someone say 5 years ago?
MFK: It came into existence around that time, but it was never active, simply because we filmmakers were not united. It was only recently that a few of us decided to give life to something that was dying. Now we have succeeded in getting government recognition. We have a certificate. Back then, we were just like a club.
FO: The film guild is recognised by government. Is the film union recognised by government?
MFK: They are registered to exist in the country, just like any group, but they do not have the license to act as a trade union for filmmakers.
FO: Why do you say that?
MFK: It is because the trade union policy in this country is that the certificate is given to only one entity.
FO: What is the advantage of being registered in the government?
MFK: When you are known by the government, then the body becomes a legal one, which can sue and be sued when it goes against the laws of the country, or when someone infringes on the right of someone in the film industry that is registered in the guild.
FO: So what is the guild doing about this woman’s film that she says has not been completed?
MFK: : The guild became active again this year and this woman’s film was 2 years ago. The guild is still a baby and it’s still growing.
BD: The truth about this is we all have a passion to do film, but we do not have, nor know, the structure. With this guild, we are trying to see how we can use our knowledge and fight for its members. We are looking at the guilds also having workshops, training and the like to help filmmakers.
FO: So basically it is all about skills and structure in the industry?
EVERYBODY: Yes, skills and structure.
FO: Are any of you doing documentary films? Is there a market for documentary films?
PS: I do a documentary and I send it out there for competition in Europe and America. There are a few international filmmakers that I know and sometimes they ask me if I can do a documentary about certain topics.
AOT: Most filmmakers do not have an interest in documentary filmmaking. Very few do. Feature length is the concern, so I do not believe there is enough initiative for documentary films or short films. Only a few individuals are concentrating on making documentaries and feature length movies.
I don’t think we have any market for documentaries. Perhaps it’s hidden and we can’t see it, unless someone opens our eyes and says this is the market. (laughing)
MFK: Honestly I don’t know of any market in this country, it’s just a passion. Recently I was in the Koinadugu district and I went to the Loma Mountains, the second highest mountain in the country. This is all about passion and wanting to tell a story.
FO: Finally, can we talk about broadcasting — there is SLBC. Is there anyone making television programming, soap operas?
AOT: In the past couple of years, a few people have tried to make soap operas — Julius Spencer, Premier Media, Talking Drum Studios…
BD: The reason why people are not interested in this is, for instance, if I am taking a trailer to the SLBC to play it and they’re charging me for it, what would happen when it comes to soap operas and things like that?
BS: To give you an insight from an office perspective, we were doing work on Maternal Health in Sierra Leone and we wanted to collaborate with SLBC. We did a proposal and the director is a very close friend of mine. He worked as a journalist for Human Rights, while I am the Director for Amnesty International. Their operational plan was not able to accommodate what we wanted to do and they were not flexible, so we had a problem and the organisation had to take on everything. Even when we did the documentaries, we were asked to pay if we wanted to air them on SLBC.
FO: In a situation where you are not able to continue with the structure you have now, where everybody just chips in, do you still see a viable market? If a film starts to cost you 20,000 USD to make, which is what is going to happen by the time you start paying people, no matter how small, assume that an average cost comes out to 15/20,000 USD. Do you see the possibility of turning a profit? What’s important is not to bring an outside structure into the environment and then the environment cannot sustain it and everything collapses, because once you start paying people you can’t stop. What are your thoughts about that?
AS: Actually I believe we can sustain it because even though right now Sierra Leone is a virgin country, if we work as a team it can be done.
KS: Yes we can. In the first instance what the film guild or whatever organisation will try to do is to break the barrier between us and the government, because if we can get the government on board then without them sponsoring us financially, we can get them to sponsor us through contacts for SLBC. If we have SLBC on board and they air our trailers frequently, that can help sales of movies in this town.
When they shot Blood Diamond, that movie made a lot of money in this town. I was a part of that group that went around Bo, Kono and Makeni areas. I know the amount of money made at that time. So, if we start doing that, launching movies in different parts of the town, you will make twice what you spent making the movie.
FO: Why is the guild not organising forums and discussing strategies, exactly the same thing we are doing here now?
KS: The guild is now working. It has been together for the past 6 months, working on strategies, the acts, policies, regulations and all of that. It is a work in progress and we will get to that point.
Apart from that, as you rightly said, it is the legislation and if we have a legislation that says SLBC, you have to play a Sierra Leone movie trailer, free of charge, that will go a long way to advertise a movie. If there was a legislation that said that, then the marketers, and in fact the marketers right now are above the guilds, let me be frank with you. In fact, the last time I went there I was told, “Whether you like it or not, what we decide to pay you guys is what we are going to pay you”.
BS: Without a structure sustaining the film industry, it is going to haphazard, it is going to be uncoordinated, and people will continue to suffer from making films and not benefiting. Just listen to his experience – marketers who can turn to guilds and say “whether you like it or not.”
This goes a very long way to show that until we have a structure which regulates the activity of every player within the film sector, sustaining the film industry will still be a challenge. There are a lot of people forming groups. These groups are a very clear manifestation that people need to organise themselves to make a profit out of this entire process. Therefore, I am of the very strong opinion that until we have a structure, a formidable structure that protects the interests of every player within the film sector, it’s going to be difficult especially for the filmmakers. Meanwhile, the marketers are going to be waiting to take advantage of the very fragile situation.
FO: What do you see as a path to the structure, who’s responsible for creating this structure?
BS: I think that the Sierra Leone Film Guild has a very big responsibility, we have the legal background. What we lack to some extent are the skills and the capabilities to move this process forward. First are the skills and the capabilities and once we know how to run such a process, I am pretty sure we can access funding. By then we would be sure of what we want to do, how we want to do it and then we can move on from there.
I think that the Sierra Leone Film Guild and any other film organisation out there needs to be structured. We need to take responsibility and it needs to be something serious.
Sometimes we’ve called meetings and even the executive members have not come. I drafted a communications strategy that I shared with the team, and up until this moment that communications strategy has not taken effect.
So, that’s the problem, even within ourselves. Executives within the Film Guild do not take the work seriously. That is the problem. Until we move forward and we believe that the Film Guild has a responsibility to contribute to the success of filmmaking in this country, then it remains an illusion.
FO: Thank you.
FOCUS GROUP 2
TRANSCRIPT OF VISIT TO WE OWN TV HOUSE
LM: My name is Lansana Mansaray. That’s my real name, but most people know me as Bammy Boy. I am the production manager for We Own TV and I’m also a filmmaker. I used to do rap music a long time ago and I’m still interested in music, but for now I’m working with We Own TV. I have done a lot of work for youth groups, NGOs, TV stations and the rest.
AP: My name is Arthur Pratt; I am also working at We Own TV as the manager and I am in charge of education. I am a Pastor and a freelance journalist as well. I am 35 years old.
IK: My name is Idriss Kpange. I am a filmmaker and a TV journalist.
FO: What do you do for sound? Are you the main editor here?
LM: Yes I am the main editor here. For sound what we basically do is…you see this microphone here, this is what we use for voiceovers and other things just in case we have problems with the original sound, but with the cameras that we use the sound we get is pretty good. (taking out a camera and showing it) This is the online edit suite, where I do my work. It is the main editing facility, it has both Mac and PC for both Final Cut and Premiere.
FO: Wow! You are basically using the same kind of camera that we are using. What kind of work are you guys doing, where do you get funding?
AP: Basically we focus on producing.
LM: Most of the content we produce here is creative content for young people and our funding comes from donors around the world. We have a creative director who is based in San Francisco called Banker White. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars — it’s about a band of musicians, Sierra Leoneans. They formed a band in the refugee camp in Guinea and he followed them through their success. It was one of the biggest documentaries to come out of this country and it was done by Banker White and Zach Niles. When they did the documentary it was so successful that they thought that they could something with young filmmakers here in Sierra Leone. They decided to come up with an initiative to see how they could best empower young filmmakers. That’s basically a summary of how We Own TV came into being.
They did do some scouting before that, across the country in Kono, Makeni, and of course in Freetown, trying to spotlight interested filmmakers they could train and that had potential in the country. We were among the people they found, among a couple of other people in the east, six in Kono and two in Makeni.These young people include ex-combatants, unfortunate young people living on their own in the streets. Yes, this is the bunch that makes up We Own TV.
The center is available to them at any time. With the little equipment and know-how that we have, we are able to pass on ideas to them and in turn hope that they will go on in the world and do their creative work.
I personally am not involved in making Sierra Leone soap operas, or in making Sierra Leone movies. I am more focused on producing content for NGOs and documentaries. That is what I do, and of course, part of our own work also involves doing freelance work for other NGOS and international people.
FO: How much work did the NGOs actually bring in terms of the volume of work in the documentary genre?
LM: Some of the work that groups like UNICEF and British Council used to hire expats to do, is now coming to us. It opens the door for us to make headway with various NGOs. As a Sierra Leonean it is not that easy and Idriss will attest to the fact. There is no funding here or encouragement for young filmmakers to make or produce their own films, or use their own ideas to make their own documentaries.
It really is difficult. There is no funding available here. For instance, if I have an idea and I want to produce a documentary, the state television will not commission it. There is nothing like that happening here. So we are just doing it out of love and passion. Some of us who are making headway with these local NGOs are starting to see a bit of light because of the work that we do.
FO: My question is, Can you say you are doing it for love if you are working with NGOs?
LM: (Overriding) I am properly paid if I’m working for people like The British Council and UNICEF. I am properly paid for it. That is why some of the equipment I have is not donor’s equipment. When I get paid I use it to upgrade myself. I don’t call that work, I just call that promotional stuff I do for NGOs.
FO: As a filmmaker what kind of films or documentaries do you guys want to be making?
AP: For most of us here at We Own TV, we do short films and also we are looking at films that express situations with topical themes such as corruption. Presently we are working on something called African Ninja. It’s a comedy that is looking at one man’s fight against corruption, which we know is very strong in Africa and in Sierra Leone.
In terms of documentaries, they cover all types of topics. I am doing a documentary on the elections now. Bammy is also covering the making of the African Ninja, and Michaela is doing a documentary on child labor. We are working on different things. We are also working on a documentary on disabled people and looking at how they live in Sierra Leone.
FO: How are you funding these documentaries?
LM: As you know it is not very easy. For instance, the production of the documentary Africa Ninja is being helped by Banker White who is the creative director of We Own TV, but most of the other work we do on our own because of the love and the passion we have for making films. It is part of what we do. The backbone of We Own TV is creative work.
FO: What is the structure of We Own TV? How did it come about?
AP: Basically We Own TV started in 2009 when Banker White and Zach Niles came to town. They were working Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars so they saw the aftermath of the war, they saw the situation and they decided to do something about it. When they met us, we had discussions with them and they decided to work on the aspect of self-expression, using video. We started in 2009 by taking 22 or so young people for a workshop in Lungi which lasted for a whole month. After the workshop, they left us with equipment — cameras and laptops. For a whole year we were working at our various houses. We were responsible for moving around the different towns conducting workshops — Kono, Makeni — trying to get them to do something until 2010 when we rented this place. We started this office 2011.
FO: Is there a market out there for documentaries?
AP/ LM: (Answer simultaneously) In Sierra Leone? No!
(Laughing)
AP: There is basically no market for documentary films in Sierra Leone. The problem with us in Sierra Leone is that we somehow don’t value records. We don’t have respect for archives and so you find out that you are losing lots and lots of information that we are supposed to be storing. Take for example the 50th anniversary, nothing much was done about it. No strong documentary. Nothing came out about how Sierra Leone moved towards being 50 years old. Look at the political trend in Sierra Leone. Things are changing rapidly but nobody wants to sponsor documentaries. There is no market — absolutely none for documentaries in Sierra Leone.
This is the reason why the independent filmmakers we see around are releasing feature length films. They are following the Nigerian trend because that’s where the money is. They try to sell out to people who will buy their films in the street, but if I do a documentary now and take it out there, it won’t sell. Even with NGOs you hardly get NGOs that commission local people like us to do documentaries. It’s not easy. It all started with them calling on us to cover their workshops and we kept records for them, and seeing the quality of the work and the video, they took the risk and asked us to do some work for them.
FO: Let me ask you this. When you say there is no space for documentary or that the demand for documentary is low, what is happening with the TV stations? Why aren’t they showing documentaries?
LM: They are not interested, basically. What should I say? It’s difficult. As Arthur just said, there is no market for documentaries here, because documentary is not a day or a month’s job and for someone like us trying to develop ourselves to take up this job and say we have this idea or we want to follow this idea, we need something commissioned, even partially covered, so that we can go out there and do what we have to do. Here TV stations are not interested in commissioning young filmmakers to make documentaries.
AP: The thing is, the people running the television stations are only thinking about themselves and their pocket. They are thinking about how they make money for themselves every blessed day. That’s the whole idea. So, when they work within the station, they make sure that everything is confined within the station. For example, look at the quality of work SLBC is doing. The quality is poor. For instance, they insist that all musical videos should be of High Definition quality, and SLBC cannot even import — they cannot even broadcast it. So you understand the problem. The game is that they grab everything for themselves.
There was a time when we were doing a programme called In Focus, which mainly focused on our local folklore and storytelling. We started the programme with SLBC and before long we started having problems with them and later I found out that most of them wanted to grab programmes and do it themselves, within the SLBC. They didn’t have the technical know-how to go about doing these programmes and they ended up doing nothing. There was a time when I heard that the SLBC was given a grant by the United Nations to sponsor documentaries or short stories, culture and other things. I don’t remember the actual date but it was during the time of In Focus and nothing came out.We heard nothing about it again.
FO: How do you see your career panning out in this environment? What do you see as a way forward in the future and what are the kinds of things you think should happen to make a change?
LM: I think things will definitely take a u-turn and change. The industry is still growing and is still trying to take a strong stand here. I mean, before now, there was absolutely nothing. There was no Bammy, there was no Arthur, and there was no Idriss and that was 10 years ago. It’s just because of the civil war and when the civil war ended a lot of young people like me were desperate to do something, desperate to move on in life and we thought we could use filmmaking. Of course I was doing music at some point to express our ideas about things affecting us locally and globally in our own local communities.
That was basically what brought me into the industry (laughs) and as I started up, there was no help. The only way I could be a part of it was to follow people that had equipment, go along with them and watch what they did. That was the only way I could learn about this and from there I was mainly interested in whatever came up about film. I always made sure I would go there and be a part of it, because by then there was no school that you could go to that could teach you how to edit, teach you how to use a camera, or how to adjust this or that. There was nothing!
The only way was to go down there and learn it yourself by using VHS, so that is how I started. For the future of the industry I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I see that things are starting to develop. Before now, take for example, the market — the movies there were all Nigerian and Ghanaian movies, but now if you go round the streets of Sierra Leone, you see that Sierra Leonean movies are starting to be on top and that they are much more expensive than a Nigerian movie. You will see Sierra Leoneans now buying Sierra Leonean movies and you also notice former theatre groups are turning to movie making and also companies trying to produce movies because they are starting to see the light. For us at the other side of things, we are starting to see the same — not only from the government but also from private corporations, from the NGOs, not only locally but also internationally. We are doing it relentlessly, come rain or shine, pushing hard to make things happen for us.
Last year I went to the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival in the UK to pitch a documentary called They Call Me Savior. It was not shot by me but I was the assistant producer. It was done by these guys called Nova Studios.
These are things that were not happening before and even for people like UNICEF, The British Council or CONCERN to give me a job — it wasn’t happening before. They would rather call expats to come in and do the jobs that we are doing now and then they’d pay them and they’d leave after finishing. Now you see them giving us the job and it is the same hope I have in the area of producing creative content like documentaries. For people like the TV stations, I don’t know, but I see things changing for the better. It is not that promising but we will see how it goes.
FO: What is your biggest need in terms of the industry as a young filmmaker? I spoke to Idriss and he was talking about the importance of education….Do you agree with him?
LM: I totally agree with him. That is one of our biggest problems here in the industry. The basics always lay the foundation. It is the stepping stone for whatever you want to do in life and I believe that what is lacking in this industry is — a big thing is equipment of course — but the main one is the skill. What we do here is out of simple common understanding, just basic things, common knowledge and the little training that we have.
Again, I totally agree with him. Until kow I’ve only heard of a school, I don’t know if you have heard of that school….
AP: It’s not even functioning now.
LM: There is nothing. If you go to other places you can learn. For most of us we have a passion to learn new things but the only way that we learn is by people coming here to teach or train, and maybe when we travel outside the country. I think there is much more we can do if we have more technical skills to do what we want to do, and equipment.
FO: What do you see as the biggest need to go from where you are to where you might want to be?
LM: If I could just say something, let me give you an example. You look at the movie industry and the way things are going and you will find out that most of what is being portrayed in the movies is Nigerian Culture. The problem with that is that we don’t even understand our own culture and how we can sell it. That knowledge is lacking. You can’t sell a computer if you do not know much about the computer and that is a big problem. That comes with knowledge and learning, which is is also responsible for the growth of the industry and the growth of a lot of filmmakers, like myself, in Sierra Leone.
FO: Let’s talk about the knowledge.
AP: Well, I don’t think it’s far from what Bammy (Lansana) has said. The basic problem that we have here in Sierra Leone is, first of all, our attitude toward learning. There are many times when we think we know and we really don’t know and we want to do something because we think we know and then what we end up doing ends up being not satisfactory.
As Bammy (Lansana) said, if you watch Nigerian Films and then you watch Sierra Leonean Films, most if not all are copy cats of what you will see in Nigerian films, Ghanaian films and even Western Movies, just because we are refusing to learn. We don’t have any film schools or film institutions here that will actually teach you the art of scriptwriting, or the art of storytelling, or the art of using video to tell stories. We don’t have that here. Most of us learn from watching films and we have a little basic training from white guys who have come into the country and given us this basic training.
I wouldn’t say anyone is a “professional” only because they have gone through school and graduated. I think we should first of all desire to learn, which also means through experience. Learning is there it starts, and then something can happen. I think we need a school. We need people to teach us properly so that at the end of the day, the quality of production that will be coming out of Sierra Leone will be very good. Also again, we have a problem with our governmental system. The government seems to be neglecting developing industries such as the music industry, for exanple. When the music industry in Sierra Leone started developing, when it started showing a new face, it was completely neglected until it bounced back against the government and until it started releasing songs that were anti-government songs. Then the government began to take them seriously, but even when the government takes them seriously, we still saw very little education within that area. They are still not being trained properly in a way that will help them emerge as proper musicians. Also, even when it comes to sound engineers, there are very few professional sound engineers in Sierra Leone. I wonder if there more than 4 or 5. We have very few people who can sit down and do live music properly.
The same thing is reflected in the film industry. We have very few people who know how to do their work properly and the government does not seem to see this as a way of creating employment, which is very important.
Filmmaking, for me, is very important and creating employment is a way of preserving our traditions. They are not seeing it like that, so it is being neglected, and if they are neglecting it, then they are neglecting a whole industry which has the capability of selling the whole country to the rest of the world, as well as giving local youth work to do to put some money in their pocket.
So I think the government and even NGOs should begin to turn their attention to the talent industry. The government came out one day and said they were looking at re-branding Sierra Leone, but how can you re-brand Sierra Leone and forget about the youth? You forget about the films that are coming out of Sierra Leone with the ability to sell the country and you forget about the music? You cannot re-brand your country without this. Let us take a look at what is happening in the Indian film industry. Indian films are being encouraged to screen outside India and to be shot in places like Australia, just so that they can be used as a tool to bring tourists to these areas. Why are they neglecting us? Since after the war, tourists have not come to Sierra Leone. Still today, we are struggling with tourism. They are making a lot of noise, but the evidence is on the ground. Go out to the beaches, to the hotels and they will tell you that tourism has virtually fainted or has become unconscious. This is because there is nothing new to show. We are neglecting the talent industry, and if the talent industry is being neglected then you are neglecting the youths because for any country that lacks jobs, the youths begin to turn to their talent to provide for them with no help from the government. The government needs to come onboard and help the talent industry to grow.
Take for example what is happening now on SLBC. They are showing a programme, Second Chance, which is a foreign film that is aired over SLBC and that is sponsored by Airtel Telecommunications Company, but Airtel has refused to sponsor the very first film festival that was done in Sierra Leone.
They refused to sponsor it as well as efforts made by the Sierra Leone National Film Union. They did a programme called Faces of Sierra Leone to help the actors grow in Sierra Leone and they failed to sponsor it, but they are sponsoring foreign films over the national television even though we are the ones that are buying their recharge cards, that are pouring our money into their businesses.
Last year after we did the film festival, Idriss came up with another film festival on human health. Now these festivals are needed if we are to build this industry properly. For example, if we are to create a market for documentaries, we need to encourage the people to see the importance of documentaries and show them why they need to go out and buy these documentaries and why they need to have them. They need to understand that these documentaries are real stories. They are references that they can go back to at any time. It informs and helps them. We need to cajole the people and the only way we can do this is when we have the film festival and the national broadcaster SLBC encouraging these things, and when we have the private sector investing in some of these things. However, they are not. investing in them. They are going outside.
They do all their adverts outside. It was only early this year that we started seeing Airtel using our local faces on their billboards. They were going down to South Africa, to Ghana, and bringing pictures of people outside Sierra Leone to advertise here. So you see, at the end of the day, as Bammy said, “There is light at the end of the tunnel”, because this industry is going to go big. I know for sure that this industry is going to be big because since last year, the films that came out cannot be equated to what we have now. Their quality of these films may be questionable and they are not all that good, but you can see the effort and the talent. This shows that we just need to have help to groom ourselves and then we will reach the peak.
FO: Tell me about your film festival. Idriss, describe your own and then you guys after him. I want to know the name of the festival, when it’s held, the theme, why it was held, how many people were there and how many films did you show? Give me a rundown of what happened at the festival.
IK: My own festival that we created is called Opin Yu Yi (Open Your Eyes). It only focuses on Human Rights. The reason why we used the theme “open your eyes” is because we want to raise awareness on human rights issues. We see a lot of human rights abuses being conducted every single day in Sierra Leone and as filmmakers we thought that if we use film to communicate positive human rights messages then people would understand properly and really fast because the stories relate directly to them — such as the theme of domestic violence. It is global. If someone sits in China and watches a domestic violent film about a man beating a woman, it’s the same as if they go to Russia or they go to Japan — it’s global. Also, part of it was that we used some powerful international films to send out the messages on human rights, a lot of people came and we screened in different locations. We had an opening and then we moved to a different location, such as the slum, where a lot of abuses happen. I think there is a need for that. As Arthur was saying, we don’t really have a market for documentaries but if we start creating these kinds of platforms then people will start understanding that these films are also good and it’s not just about the drama they do.
The festival had its own impact on people, because the feedback we got after the festival was really good. So, we are doing it every March and we are doing another one next year. Now we are giving incentives to filmmakers because we are doing a film competition and because we want filmmakers to come up with their own ten minute short films on Human Rights and present them. There is a jury that will judge and we want to give them a prize. We want to give them an incentive so when other filmmakers see that, it will be an incentive for them to go out and do more.
FO: How do you sustain the energy of that festival? Are you online, do you have a website?
IK: Yes we do have a website. It is www.Opin Yu Yi.org and Opin Yu Yi on Facebook. We got support from the British High Commission, The British Council and Christian Aid and then in partnership with my media house, Concept Multimedia, we managed to… The money that we got was basically for advertising, printing banners, paying for a lot of printed materials and doing adverts on TV and radio.
FO: How are these as marketing platforms for filmmakers your age? Obviously festivals are first and foremost promotional platforms.
IK: If I do a film and it is shown at this festival, then everybody knows I am a filmmaker. Everybody knows that this is what l do. If I do a story that touches people, then the next time they hear that I have a story that is coming out and that it is going to be on sale, before any festival I’m sure people will be willing to buy it because they know that the story is going to be good, the story will relate directly to them or to every day happenings in their society.
I think that it is good that these platforms are being created right now. This whole thing is like a revolution. We are trying to bring new ideas into people’s minds and we are trying to make them adapt to something new and that they have never really been used to.When we had the idea of a film festival, a lot of people were asking what a film festival was because, for them, when they say festival, it is to go to the stadium, eating a lot, dancing a lot, drinking a lot, and showing off with their girls. That is what a festival is to them. So actually bringing people into a cinema and showing them different films for 5 to 6 hours is a new kind of trend in this country.
AP: Our festival was the We Own National Film Festival, and the theme for that festival was artist power. We were looking at feature length films that had been done in Sierra Leone and about 54 feature length films came in. We had some documentaries, short films and music videos among them. We did the film festival at the Miatta Conference compound. The festival ended with an awards night, which was the very first film awards night that was ever done in Sierra Leone. We gave them awards for the best actors and the best films and also a satellite company, Medosat, came in at the last moment and they offered to give the winners of the awards digital satellite dishes.
The unfortunate part of it was that we never had any funding from anybody. What happened was that we had to pour in our own money because we actually wanted to do it. Bammy, Michaela, myself and other people came in with small amounts of personal cash and we were able to do it. We moved around, looking for funds and as I said, we went to Airtel for funding, we went to Comium, we went to Africell, and we went to other big companies in this country. None of them gave us a single cent. In fact, Airtel was with us. They were negotiating with us until the very day the festival started. That was when they pulled out, but it was a success. It was a huge success. It was a 2 week long festival.
FO: How was the attendance?
AP/LM: It was good, it was very good.
LM: It was done at the perimeter of the Miatta Conference Hall and we invited all, if not most, of the film groups to build booths around the perimeter and a lot showed interest. We had people from Ghana, Gambia and even Senegal.
AP: They came in for that film festival because it was not only films that were shown. We decided to bring in the textile/clothing industry because people were here to sell their things.
FO: Do you have images of this festival?
AP/LM: Yes we do.
FO: How come you didn’t approach the government to be a part of these festivals?
AP/LM: We didn’t invite them because they are not serious.
LM: It is a difficult situation and you wouldn’t understand the extent. We approached government and it was difficult to meet the right people and even when you did meet them, they would tell you one thing today and another thing tomorrow. At the end of the day we realised that if we kept running after them we wouldn’t succeed and we would just waste our time (laughing). We were able to get some support however, because the space was given by the Minister of Works. The tourism minister came in also at some point, helped to sign the certificate and then gave her blessing.
FO: There was a question if there was any market for documentary. You said no, but then if there is no market for documentary films in Sierra Leone, are you willing to put a lot of money into something and then not make anything out of it at the end of the day?
AP: It’s not that we are not going to make anything out of it. For us at We Own TV, I think we made do with the international market.
FO: So, you are thinking that if you make Sierra Leonean documentaries, you will have a better chance in the international market? Do you think that if you do your own films and take it to the international market, and people like it that it will inspire other Sierra Leonean filmmakers to do their own?
AP: Yes exactly. Sure. The only thing for now is the mad rush for money and the mad rush for money means that people are looking out for money every day, so we have very few filmmakers who are interested in doing documentary. However, when we begin to have people succeeding in the international market with their documentaries then we will begin to have lot of other filmmakers who will want to do documentary.
FO: What if someone came in saying, “We want to fund documentary filmmaking, We Own TV has a structure and we want to put money in to increase documentary filmmaking in Sierra Leone”. How would you put that money to good use?
AP: Most important is to get people to be able to understand documentary, to create a market for documentary film. We first have to get the national broadcaster involved in this. They have to show interest in this because if they have special programmes to show more of our documentaries, they will begin to get people interested. Remember Hilton Fyle who was working for BBC? He came to Sierra Leone and he did Sunrise in Paradise, about the NPRC government, and it was a hit. Also, when Sorious Samura came out with the documentary, Cry Freetown it was a hit. We need to be having documentaries released at a faster speed.
IK: I don’t think the people working in the national broadcast know what they are doing. They really don’t know anything. How can I do my work and then you ask me to pay you as a broadcaster to show my work?
FO: I get you, but what we are asking for is solution.
IK: It is education. I keep talking about education because if they know what they are doing, they would not do what they are doing. They need to travel to other countries and see what other people are doing and how they are doing it and they would understand if they were properly trained. You would know that you as a TV station are to commission my work.
You should pay me. If I have spent 2 years doing my documentary and I come with it and you ask me to pay you, you are doing the wrong thing.
AP: Let me give you a scenario. When we were doing the Real National Film Festival, we went to SLBC and asked them to partner with us. We said: “Ok, you partner with us for one hour of airtime for the duration of the film festival, and also you do advertising for the film festival, and what we are going to do is to give you all the films we show at the film festival for you to air them”. The first thing they did was ask us to pay them and I looked at them and I said, “Can you pay me for my film, do you know what it takes for me to make that film?” So they asked us to do a memorandum of understanding and we did a memorandum of understanding but they never signed it. After the film festival, even though they did not partner with us, I went there and gave them a few films and I asked them to play those films because they were our own films and we were just trying to get our people interested in our films.
After the film festival, we found out that these guys were now buying these films from the streets and then playing them. I am the cinematographic liaisoncoordinator for the union and somebody called me one night and said they are playing my film. It was Janeh, who did Dark Side of Life, so I watched it.
I protested to them angrily and then found out again that they were playing Sierra Leonean films. I gathered a few guys in the union and we went to their office and I gave them strict warning that the day they play one Sierra Leonean film again without our knowledge, or the knowledge of the producer of that particular film, we will take them to court and they will pay the sixty million the law says you should pay if you are caught pirating a film.
