We currently are planning a production workshop in Freetown, Sierra Leone scheduled for Fall 2008. Using community based media workshops we will teach filmmaking techniques to a group of Sierra Leonean teenagers, many of them ex-combatants all of whom lived through the decade-long civil war in their country. The program involves a community engaged curriculum in which we will collaboratively create and produce our own independent media. Styles will range from documentary and journalism to creative storytelling via narrative short films and music videos. These pieces will be an exploration of the issues faced by these youth who deal everyday with the effects of war. Subject matter will range from; war time gender violence, the use of children as soldiers, effects of being culturally and physically uprooted, and the growing pains experienced in a country healing from a recent civil war. We will provide the technical support, encouragement and training that will allow these young adults to creatively produce their own media and share their experiences and ideas with the world.

REGIONAL OVERVIEW AND PROJECT RELEVANCE:

Having survived a horrific civil war in which over half of the country’s population was displaced, Sierra Leone has recently achieved a second peaceful election and is looking optimistically towards the future. UNAMSIL (United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone) was one of the largest and most successful peace keeping missions in the history of the UN.

Following this ongoing post-war success, the international community is looking to Sierra Leone to live up to its reputation as a humanitarian relief success story. As the international support withdraws, it is crucial that Sierra Leone has the tools in place to support this new democracy. We believe that independent media is a crucial part of this picture. We aim to provide sufficient training, equipment and support network so that communities will be able to build on this experience and continue developing their skills after the workshop is complete. WeOwnTV and WeOwnTV partner initiatives will also work to mobilize resources in funding and technical support to make follow-up workshops possible.

The communities we are interested in working with suffer unfortunate logistical realities and gross inequalities in access to computers and telecommunication networks. As global communication technologies develop and have a wider reach into the third world, it is vital that those countries do not remain passive viewers, who are educated and entertained only by imported media. WeOwnTV will work with local and in-country media outlets (such as SLBS and CelTel) to encourage the programming and distribution of the films throughout Sierra Leone.

FUTURE IMPACT AND SIGNIFICANCE:

The first world/third world digital divide is very real, but after watching a country with virtually no land-line telephone infrastructure go cellular, we are very optimistic about potential for rapid development. The Internet and new media technologies such as video-sharing sites and video capable mobile phones have the potential to democratize our global dialogue and bring a revolutionary balance to the existing corporate media system. This potential is all the more relevant in countries that are recovering from the devastating effects of war. Providing a means for informed engagement with political debate, community concerns, and public issues fosters the idea that change comes from within and that an individual voice can have a positive and important role in shaping the future.

WeOwnTV will use this first project in Freetown, Sierra Leone as a foundation to build on. We are developing a curriculum that will enable this workshop to be duplicated around the world. We are in the beginning stages of developing strategic partnerships with humanitarian organizations and local education systems for our next workshops in Haiti and Sudan, and hope to reach even further across the globe in the coming years.

Project and Timeline:

Part of our strategy is to partner with ongoing initiatives and programs to maximize the effectiveness and ensure that project participants are given appropriate tools to thrive within their circumstance. In Sierra Leone, we have planned partnerships with UNHCR and Talking Drum Studios - a community based local radio station and project of the non-profit Search for Common Ground. We will be working with Alphonse Munyaneza (UNHCR) and Francis Fortune (Talking Drum Studio) to identify an operational base and select project participants.

Partnering with organizations such as local schools, television stations, radio stations, and rehabilitation centers we will significantly boost our integration into the community and allow for project impact to remain within the institutions that will continue this work after we leave. As a program we want to continually reinforce the idea that no one is more qualified to help Sierra Leone than Sierra Leoneans themselves. We want to encourage project participants to look within to find their voice. In Sierra Leone there are incredible oral traditions that exist within the culture and we hope that this tradition will fuel and inform the storytelling we are encouraging within the medium of film and video.