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FFF 2008
2nd Freetown Film Festival
31st August - 6th September 2008
Last year, in 2007, the Freetown Film Festival set a record for the largest and most successful film festival of Sierra Leone films anywhere in the world. Over 20 films were shown over 3 days to over 4,500 people. To the delight of audiences and filmmakers in Sierra Leone and those in the international community, the Freetown Film Festival was able to formally establish national and international acknowledgement of the existence of a Sierra Leone filmmaking industry. Following on from that unprecedented success, this year's 2nd Freetown Film Festival (2008) will seek to consolidate its impact, and increase greater awareness, appreciation and pride in the local indigenous film industry, by attempting to show films beyond Freetown, to people all over the country. Yes, we know, we had hoped to hold it in March 2008, but were bady let down by the marketing department of Celtel (as was, now re-named Zain) who made typically 'marketing-effervescent' noises about sponsorship and promises of support, then undermined our ability to keep to our dates by actually doing nothing and never having the professional courtesy to let us know in time, such that we were forced to postpone the Festival.
Nevertheless, filmmakers all over the world have frequently had to deal with such flaky attitudes, so we girded up our loins, counted to ten, rolled up our sleeves and got down to planning how we were going to organise this year's Festival so that even more Sierra Leoneans could enjoy films made by the country's filmmaking talents.
The best way to do this is through television, but therein lies another sad tale. Traditionally, it would appear that the television broadcasters in Sierra Leone refused to fully understand the economic model for television and insisted on charging film/programme makers, in much the same way an ignorant newspaper might think it could make money by charging its own journalists for printing their articles... The accepted international wisdom of most successful media (tv/radio/print/internet) that you attract, encourage, or (heaven forbid) actually pay for good content, so that your media will attract such a large audience of either significant market share or demographic importance that the audience can then be sold to eager advertisers, has been entirely lost on Sierra Leone broadcasters... With no funds to support either the acquisition or production of films, documentaries, radio plays, and other creative works, there has been little or no national investment in these areas, which in turn has led to a demise in the rlevance of television. A demise which is being countered by showing (free) foreign content such as CNN staellite feeds or Nigerian videos - which further adds to the undermining of and deculturation of Sierra Leone.
However, times are changing, and now, thanks to the visionary support of the new Director-General of Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service, the Freetown Film Festival has succeeded in creating a unique partnership with the national broadcaster. For the first time in the history of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone films will be broadcast across the country, during the Film Festival week, to provide national exposure of Sierra Leone films to the entire nation. This will provide millions of people with the chance to view a nightly screening of a selected Sierra Leone feature film; made in Sierra Leone, by Sierra Leoneans, and featuring Sierra Leonean hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations, experiences and stories. Filmmaking is coming home at last!
In addition, filmmakers themselves will be invited to a special Filmmaker's Forum, consisting of a series of industry conferences, workshops and screenings. This will be taking place, courtesy of the National Association of Sierra Leone Artists and the Ballanta Academy, at their address at 27 Liverpool Street, Freetown. Later, we hope to provide excerpts or trailers for these films on Sierra Leone's unique internet community television channel, www.XTVSL.com, where they will be able to be enjoyed by Sierra Leoneans and international audiences around the world.
If you would like to find out more about submitting your films, plaese see the submission section in the menu. If you have any suggestions or would like to help us in any way, please contact us. In the meantime, thank you for your interest and support and enjoy the Freetown Film Festival 2008!
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