Archive for the ‘Backstory’ Category

WeOwnTV Launches New Krio Language Channel and Online Classroom in Celebration of Sierra Leone’s 50th Year of Independence

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Blog note: Thank you for letting us share our news.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO AND FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE, May 19, 2011 — April 27th marked Sierra Leone’s 50th anniversary of independence, and WeOwnTV is continuing the celebration with the launch of Le Wi Lan Krio, a series of short, upbeat Krio language lessons featured on WeOwnTV.org. Aimed at an English speaking international audience and Sierra Leonean Diaspora living abroad, the lessons are entertaining and instructional. Each one focuses on the Krio language and culture, often taught through the use of Sierra Leonean proverbs and stories. In addition to the new channel, WeOwnTV also launched an online classroom on Facebook, where people can upload their own Krio lessons or chat with others to perfect their Krio.

Le Wi Lan Krio builds on WeOwnTV’s year-long production initiative, Picturing Independence: A Positive Revolution, a series of short films that celebrate the Sierra Leone of yesterday and today. The project has already received the honor of being selected as one of the programs officially endorsed by the Sierra Leone 50th Anniversary Committee and WeOwnTV is currently seeking financial assistance to make these short films a reality. To donate, please visit: http://kickstarter.weowntv.org.

“It’s been more than two weeks since Sierra Leone’s 50th anniversary of independence, and the celebration has really just begun,” said Banker White, creative director and founder, WeOwnTV. “Le Wi Lan Krio and the Picturing Independence campaigns are our tribute to the country’s golden anniversary and younger generation who lost their childhoods to the war. Both initiatives commemorate a real time of hope for young Sierra Leoneans and the entire WeOwnTV team is incredibly grateful for the groundswell of support we have received to date.”

The WeOwnTV Backstory
WeOwnTV is a continuation of the award winning documentary film, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, that chronicled a group of six Sierra Leonean musicians who came together to form a band while living in a refugee camp in Guinea. The film saw the band realize the dream of recording their first studio album, resulting in an international musical career that continues on today. Having his life changed by the opportunity to share his own story, the youngest band member Alhaji Jeffrey “Black Nature” Kamara joined forces with the film’s co-creators to form WeOwnTV two years ago.

WeOwnTV remains dedicated to the development and discovery of the young generation’s “voice” in Sierra Leone through ongoing film education, equipment, editing and distribution support. Through the recent launch of the WeOwnTV Media Center in Freetown, Sierra Leone, youth and young adult program participants are now enjoying sustained careers in film and media production. WeOwnTV’s In Focus is a compelling hour of news, culture and creative media produced for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), and the group’s works are currently being screened at film festivals around the world.

About WeOwnTV
WeOwnTV is a collaborative media education project for disenfranchised youth and young adults that promotes self-expression as a way to explore our shared humanity and build a foundation for the future. Focusing on community engagement, the WeOwnTV curriculum balances intensive film production and computer skills training with classes on storytelling. Ongoing mentorship along with technical assistance, multi-channel distribution and the promotion of finished work enables young adults to share their stories and ideas with the world. For more information, visit www.weowntv.org or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Posted in Backstory, News, WeOwnTV Productions |

The WeOwnTV “family” collaborating

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Banker here reporting as promised from SXSW 2011.

Good morning warm weather. I already can hear live music before noon─the air smells like spring flowers and BBQ─good to be back here in the lone star state. Definitely bringing back memories of our 2006 trip. I know I have reported multiple times that 2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of Independence for Sierra Leone. These kinds of milestones are exciting, a reason to celebrate and a reason to take pause. Celebrating independence is about celebrating standing on your own and your individual freedoms.

On another note, I’ve been reflecting on the collaborative philosophy that has gotten our program and group to where we are today. WeOwnTV has always been about working together as a group, about being mutually accountable to each other and about functioning like a family.

Fostering these things is essential to how we are working at WeOwnTV. All the talented folks both in North America (yes, that’s a nod to our Canadians) and in Sierra Leone who have given their individual ideas, their creativity, their advice and their hard work during the last few years created this new family.

Almost eight years ago Chris Velan, Zach Niles and I traveled to refugee camps in Guinea to make a documentary about the Sierra Leonean civil war seen through the eyes of a musician. In meeting the band our project both pulled into focus, but it also

Chris Velan with Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars working on Inez.

Chris Velan with Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars working on Inez.

expanded to become so much more than what we had envisioned. We have all remained close during the last eight years and have worked together in different ways.

Today, I write to highlight a recent collaboration that brought us all together again in fall 2010. Chris Velan invited the All Stars to record a song with him while he was in a Boston studio working on his new album.

Please visit the wonderful, media-rich site for the INEZ recording project here. It’s definitely worth a look and a listen.

Proceeds from sales of the recording are going to support the WeOwnTV project, “Meet Sweet Salone: Celebrating and Documenting 50 years of Independence.”

The program is a 12-episode documentary series that explores the Sierra Leone of yesterday and today. WeOwnTV and the SLRAS band will also be collaborating in various ways to bring these stories and the spirit of celebration to the US during their upcoming tour.

Chris and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars both have new albums coming out and many shows scheduled this spring and summer. Please go check out the infectious music of these talented musicians and wonderful friends.

p.s. calling all San Francisco folks – Chris is playing in San Francisco @ the Boom Boom Room 8:00 PM 3/26/2011. That’s this next Thursday…see you there.

Posted in Backstory, From Banker White, Music Video, News, Updates |

Off to my next SXSW Adventure

Friday, March 11th, 2011

It’s Banker here. I’m getting ready to head out the door to Austin and I am very excited…so I am here to share some thoughts with our WeOwnTV friends and family.

Banker with Nature Filming the SXSW 2008 Adventures.

Banker with Nature Filming the SXSW 2006 Adventures.

SXSW has always held a special place in my heart. In 2006, we screened Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars and in the same year our website was nominated for an Interactive Festival Award and the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars band played on the world music main stage. I remember city-wide excitement, as if the whole city was celebrating the festival together—from official festival events and venues to local bars, restaurants and busking musicians on 6th Street.

Check out the memories captured via video: Sierra Leone – Refugee All Stars- Fame via SXSW 2008 Austin Texas

SXSW 2011 will be my first trip back since the 2006 festival and a lot has changed. The festival was a new beginning for the band and their first record contract came out of that experience. They have been touring internationally since and are about to release their third album which was recorded in Brooklyn this past January.

SXSW 2008, SLRAS with Zach Niles (L) and Chris Velan (bottom right).

SXSW 2006, SLRAS with Zach Niles (L) and Chris Velan (bottom right).

For Sierra Leone, they elected a new president in September 2007, Ernest Bai Koroma and the country has seen progress, peace and development in the years since. 2011 also marks their 50th Anniversary of Independence and there is a lot to celebrate.

In 2008, we received a grant from grant from Creative Capital , for a new project called “WeOwnTV.” A collaborative film-making project that has launched a three-year collaboration, and it still feels like the beginning.

Maybe SXSW will again work its magic with us and send us into new realms of possibility.

I’m excited to report that SXSW Interactive has scheduled WeOwnTV as a core conversation called “This is Our Generation: WeOwnTV Sierra Leone.” We will be sharing curriculum highlights from our workshops and getting into some of the very exciting work that the group in Sierra Leone is doing now. I couldn’t be more proud of the group. In just three years we have grown a rough and tumble group with no media training, but with something to say, to a highly productive and talented production entity, producing a weekly hour for the national TV station, as well as numerous other ambitious narrative and documentary work. Truth be told, I have learned a lot from them….

If you are in Austin this Monday attending SXSW, please join us at our Core Conversation.

Posted in Backstory, From Banker White, News, Updates |

Thanksgiving 2010 — We are thankful!

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

From all of us at the WeOwnTV family, from the youth filmmakers and staff in Sierra Leone to the administrative staff and faculty in the United States, we give thanks to our board of advisors, our partners, our donors and to our enthusiastic cheerleaders.

It is with your support during the last two years that we have accomplished so very much. Together, most recently, we opened a Media Center in central Freetown that offers a safe place for the youth filmmakers to create and explore their stories. This month alone they plan to complete three short films.

In addition, we have added several new filmmakers to our “team” in Sierra Leone and we will introduce them to you shortly, as we are currently putting the final touches on their intro videos.

In the meantime if you haven’t had a chance to “meet” our two fearless leaders in Sierra Leone, please take a moment to watch videos introducing Arthur Pratt and Lansana Mansaray (aka Barmmy Boy).

Meet Arthur Pratt

Meet Barmmy Boy

It is under their leadership that daily operations of the media center thrive and that WeOwnTV has already been hired to work on multiple film and video projects for NGOs, advertising agencies, hotels and other businesses.

There is so much more to share and we will soon. For now, know that the entire team appreciates all you have done for WeOwnTV…together we have accomplished so much and the best is yet to come.

With gratitude, Team WeOwnTV

Posted in Backstory, News |

WeOwnTV–The Beginning: Arthur Reflects on Our First Year

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

It was a knock on the office door that brought me back to the conscious. My mind was running through all that has happened since 2009 August when WeOwnTV held its first workshop. I thought back  even farther to the first time I met my friend, Radha Rajkotia Don, who introduced me to Zach Niles and Banker White. You know it is funny how a little bit of kindness can earn you so much in life. My work with WeOwnTV all began when I helped her, a British-born Indian lady, carry a sack of water. This lady became my friend and she later introduced me to the guys that would bring WeOwnTV into my life.

So began the manifestation of a dream, an idea, a thought, a belief. WeOwnTV came to us as a light that seemed unreal. It’s like looking at a diamond and at the same time not being sure of what you are looking at─a little delicate thing that has the power and ability to explode into one of the greatest illuminations of our time.

The workshop of 2009 came and went like one passing through the different weather conditions of the seasons. The start of which was joy and experience-sharing and the end, joyful tears running down the cheeks of most of our female participants for whom the experience is one they might never get from another organization.

Our first year was not easy. Getting people to know us and running our programs without an office space was the greatest difficulty I faced in our first year. Without business cards or an office space, no one would do business with us. In addition, without a safe, reliable place to maintain equipment…it broke. The two apple laptops left with us crashed, the Cannon camera died and at the tail end of our first year my favorite camera the Sony PD150 finally gave way.

WHAT KEEPS ME GOING: The vision itself is so powerful that once you are in it you will not let go. The small Sony PDX10 camera became my tool. I became a professional by experience. Before you knew it I had completed two films for different groups in Sierra Leone. Tyson made his music album and I was in Makeni to direct and film videos which became the center of positive gossip in his hometown. Things where not so bad after all.

When I received a call from Banker asking me to look out for an office space I thought for a moment is this really happening to us? Are we finally going to stand? I thought of how many opportunities we have lost just because we didn’t have office space. The news itself was received with joy amongst both old members and incoming participants. One thing I am happy to say is that even though the first year was a little bit rough, the young filmmakers for whom this program was established gained enormous confidence in us. They were meeting me from every corner or bit of space we could find with sincere interest in our program. Blessed be God forever.

Celebrate: Opening Day

WeOwnTV: Sierra Leone celebrates Opening Day of the Media Center in Freetown.

The knock was from a young gentle man, who entered my office and said, “I have heard about you for so long and today is the day that God has made it possible for us to meet. I would like you guys to do a film for me.”

Here we are now, in this office, a space of respect, dignity and authority, with all Sierra Leone waiting for us to conquer. We shall conquer.   — Arthur.

Posted in Backstory, From Sierra Leone, From the Desk of Arthur Pratt |