Archive for the ‘From Banker White’ Category

It’s almost Banker’s birthday…help him with his wish

Friday, May 4th, 2012

On Monday I received an email that began,

“Happy (Almost) Birthday! Thanks to Facebook, in one week all of your friends will see that it’s your birthday on May 5th. Instead of just writing on your wall, or giving you something you don’t need, what if they had a chance to help a cause you believe in? “

So, I thought to myself, since all of my friends are in the habit of showering me with lavish gifts every Cinco de Mayo (Ha!) this could be a great and productive thing to do as alternative.

But I did indeed decide to sign myself up for Causes and give it a try.

Here is my wish: http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/463067

For my birthday on May 5th, I’m asking my friends and family for a special gift: to help me get the women filmmaker’s of WeOwnTV their OWN camera—and yes, it will be painted pink!

WeOwnTV Women Filmmakers

WeOwnTV Women Filmmakers

Last year we promoted WeOwnTV mentor Michaella Sallu to be the manager of a new Women’s Producing Initiative. She was the first woman to be promoted to a management position at WeOwnTV and has been doing amazing things. She now is leading a group of young filmmakers and mentoring them in production skills training and story development.

The camera I want to get them would completely change their capacity to produce high quality films – it records full HD video and professional sound. They are already in planning stages of several amazing projects and the work is diverse from a narrative film called ‘Cry in the Dark’ that tackles gender violence and HIV, to a documentary called ‘Street Soldiers’ about a local street theater group that is collaborating with young women working as prostitutes, trying to help them get off the streets.

I am dedicating this birthday wish to all the amazing women in my life; specifically; my amazing mother, Pam White who just celebrated her 65th birthday, my incredible wife Anna Fitch, my beautiful daughter Miss Dylan Tilly White and the talented Michaella Sallu, manager of WeOwnTV’s Women’s Producing Initiative.

Michaella Behind the Camera

Michaella has a fan on set (future filmmaker in training).

Thanks for joining me in my celebration and in making my birthday wish come true. Donations of any size will get us one step closer to getting a pink camera into the hands of the amazing women in Freetown. Wishes accepted here: http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/463067.

Here’s to dreaming and wishing for big things,

Banker

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Posted in From Banker White, Fundraising, News, WeOwnTV Productions |

WeOwnTV Sierra Leone Media Center Turns One

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Wow! It’s hard to believe a year ago the U.S. team and I had just returned from Sierra Leone having officially opened the WeOwnTV Sierra Leone Media Center in Freetown. And now, here we are strategizing for year-end productions (thanks to #positiverevolution Kickstarter campaign) and our 2012 plan.

WeOwnTV at work.

WeOwnTV's Barmmy Boy at work behind the camera.

During this first year with a “roof over our heads,” there has been significant momentum achieved and the flames of inspiration are just beginning to IGNITE.

Highlights include:

* In late January we started producing In Focus, an hour-long program for the national television station (SLBC)

* In April we ran a successful local film festival in Freetown in conjunction with the country’s 50th anniversary of independence

* In addition to funds received by our amazing supporters, we raised more than $18,000 with our first Kickstarter campaign and have implemented a production proposal process to produce “Positive Revolution” work as a result

* Partnering with the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars we campaigned in honor of the country’s 50th Anniversary and launched the #positiverevolution as we promoted together Sierra Leonean culture

* We joined forces with Lawnfish productions to launch an international film festival in 2012 which received a $15,000 grant from IDFA and the Jan Vrijman Fund this summer

* August marked the first anniversary of the WeOwnTV Sierra Leone Media Center and the renewal of our lease at 20 Old Railway Line

* Screenings and presentations at multiple international festivals: South by Southwest (SXSW), The Sonoma International Film Festival and next up in November the San Francisco film Society’s Cinema by the Bay

* Freelance work continues to grow and projects have included work for: Hospitaalbroeders, Conciliation Resource and the Peace Project film

* Team is in post-production for They Resisted, launched the Le Wi Lan Krio channel and are in pre-production and development on a variety of new productions

* We launched a women’s producing initiative Woman go tok and appointed Michaella Sallu as its managing director.

* And those are just the highlights…

Michaella Behind the Camera

Michaella has a fan on set (future filmmaker in training).

The team is excited by the achievements to date. However, we believe this is only the beginning and as the support for our efforts continue to grow we look forward to the amazing opportunities ahead.

In a couple of days we plan to share the projects that are getting the “greenlight” for further development as a result of the funds raised from the Kickstarter campaign. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

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Posted in From Banker White, From Sierra Leone, Updates |

So long Austin, it was grand: Banker bids farewell to SXSW 2011

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Out of the fire and into to the rain – back in SF after a great week @ SXSW. It was an amazing week of inspiration and I’m definitely retiring filled up with new ideas. Our panel may not have sold as many tickets as Charlie Sheen’s upcoming ‘My Violent Torpedo of Truth -defeat is not an option‘ tour, BUT it was a great event with mad knowledge and electric exchange of ideas. We did have a great turnout of interesting folks, excited to talk about video and new media in the developing world. Hands down it was the people I met down in Austin that made it such a great trip.

The day before our session,  I attended a panel, “Defining The Diaspora: Global Collaboration and Social Change,” led by the founder of Nomadic Wax, Ben Herson.  Nomadic Wax is a fair trade music, film and events production company with a focus on presenting politically and socially conscious music from around the world. After the event I met Hanifa Washington who is the New Media & Special Projects Coordinator from the ‘Amistad America‘  project.

La Amistad was a slave ship that left Sierra Leone and its history was set, when aboard a mutiny occurred in 1839, led by a Sierra Leonean slave by the name of Sengbe Pieh. The Amistad America project is an educational project dedicated to teaching the lessons of the Amistad incident. They have a 140-foot traditional wooden schooner replica of the Amistad that was built at Mystic Seaport Museum and launched in 2000. This summer they are revisiting the triangular trans-Atlantic slave route. Check out link to project here. I had previously heard about the project, so it was amazing to meet Hanifa in person. Hopefully, we can get a WeOwnTV filmmaker on the boat for its next voyage!

There were also a lot of great folks who showed up to our panel including Rachel Hamann. Rachel contacted me on Facebook before the event. Her husband just started working at an orphanage in Freetown run by an organization called The Raining Season. She was preparing for her first trip to Freetown and a potential move with her family in the coming year. It will be nice to have yet another friend in Sierra Leone when we visit.

Well that’s all for now folks. Please take the time to check out some of these interesting projects AND stay tuned to WeOwnTV; we are gearing up for the 50th independence celebration and have a lot of great things planned between now and then.

More soon.

Posted in From Banker White, News, Updates |

Banker Reports from SXSW and Introduces Two New WeOwnTV Mentors

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Woke up to a little rain in Austin yesterday morning, but it was still warm. Started the day @ a panel called ‘Unexpected Non-fiction Storytelling,’ which was inspiring innovation that mixed well with the early morning coffee…it filled me new ideas. Check out a few stand-out projects I saw:

Tommy Pallotta presented Collapsus a ‘three panel, mixed narrative story line, with interactive documentary components.’

NFB Canada presented what Ron McLaughlin described as an “interactive parable with live data visualizations and a presentation of collected scientific data.‘

Online celeb, Ze Frank’s  project where he invited people to leave painful experiences on a phone messaging system.

WeOwnTV Mentors

WeOwnTV Mentors: (LtoR) Alluspa, Kanku, Earnest, Mustapha, Tyson, Fanta, Arthur and Frank (front).

After this session and others at SXSW I am struck with a sense of community and the idea that as an audience member and a speaker I am part of a fabric of learning from and giving back. On a smaller scale, we have brought that sense to our team in Sierra Leone. When you have been taught, it’s your responsibility to teach.

Recently, we introduced Michaella, who joined the WeOwnTV team as a mentor last summer. Today, in honor of our own “giving back” to the community through sharing our experience at a SXSW Core Conversation this afternoon, I would like to introduce to you two more talented young Sierra Leonean who joined the team last summer…meet Frank M’Cormack and Mustapha Brima.

Posted in From Banker White, News, Updates |

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 |

Banker is Smiling: Spreading the Good Word of WeOwnTV

Friday, December 17th, 2010

It’s Friday, December 17 and I just hung-up a Skype call to the Media Center in Freetown with Arthur Pratt. I am smiling.

Smiling as I acknowledge it has been only four months since we opened the Media Center but so much has happened…smiling, because Arthur just gave me a rundown of what they are up to and the group’s excitement is contagious…smiling, because November and December have also been exciting outside of Sierra Leone with WeOwnTV short films being featured at film festivals here in the US and abroad.

Here’s a little recap:

* In November, Zach Niles attended the Camden International film festival. Representing WeOwnTV, he screened a short film before Rebecca Richman Cohen’s fascinating feature documentary about the Sierra Leone International War Crimes Tribunal, War Don Don.

Film still from HUSLTER which screened at Cine Experimental de Madrid.

Film still from HUSLTER which screened at Cine Experimental de Madrid.

* The Experimental Film of Madrid event (Cine Experimental de Madrid) dedicated an entire program to WeOwnTV short films, and I spent an amazing week in Madrid as a festival juror while representing WeOwnTV — Hablás Español?

* The team in Sierra Leone is gaining recognition as a significant contributor to local arts and media. Our program ‘Meet Sweet Salone’–Celebrating and Documenting Sierra Leone’s 50 Years of Independence has been honored by the 50th Anniversary Committee in Sierra Leone. They have pledged to support the development of WeOwnTV film and video projects to share stories of the Sierra Leone of today with national and global audiences as the country celebrates its Golden Anniversary in 2011. We are currently in the funding phase of this milestone programming; please consider supporting ‘Meet Sweet Salone’ with a donation.

* We are developing a weekly TV show that has drawn interest from SLBC, Sierra Leone’s national television station. The program would highlight current issues impacting the country from the youth perspective and also feature content from ‘Meet Sweet Salone’ initiative; in-depth human interest stories, in-studio interviews, audience submissions, narrative short films and historical reflections.

* The group continues to produce and develop new projects. In December, they began production on ‘They Resisted,’ a short-narrative film about a slave-era revolution. In parallel, they are researching a complimentary documentary piece about Bounce Island, an area with strong historical significance tied to the slave-trade.

* Last but not least I think it’s worth mentioning we reached our social-media goal for getting the word out, by reaching 500 fans on our Facebook page. Thanks for honoring us with your “Like.”

We plan to ride the momentum of the last several months into 2011 and are looking forward to achieving many great milestones with the group in Sierra Leone in the coming year. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement…may you be smiling with us.

Posted in From Banker White, From Sierra Leone, Fundraising, News, Updates |