Why Make This Documentary?

Television journalists first heard of Sorious Samura and his footage when correspondent Fergal Keane interviewed Sorious and used some of his material in a BBC report from Sierra Leone broadcast in February 1999. Much of Sorious's material was not used because it was considered too violent.

Nik Gowing, a journalist and presenter on BBC World Television saw the report and recognized the importance and courage of Sorious's work. Gowing nominated him for the prestigious Rory Peck award for freelance cameramen and women.

The Rory Peck Trust's administrator, Tina Carr then embarked on the tough assignment of tracking down Sorious and getting him to London for the awards. On October 18th 1999 at the Rory Peck Freelance Television Cameraman Awards Sorious Samura took to the stage as the overall winner of the award.

As soon as Sorious Samura spoke we all knew there was an important film to be made. His raw footage we had seen already, it was stunning but so were his words. With modesty he reminded us that little had been shown of the atrocities carried out in the rebel attack on Freetown earlier that year. He lamented that even now few broadcasters would broadcast his pictures because they considered them too violent. We were guilty, he said to the gathered heads of the British television news industry, of ignoring his country's plight. For his criticism he was given a standing ovation.

Two weeks later he won The Mohamed Amin award at the annual gathering of television news industry chiefs in Barcelona called "News World" and a week later five broadcasters came together to give Sorious what he really wanted; the funding and support to make "Out of Africa". (Channel Four Television (UK), CBC/Société Radio-Canada, CNN International, ARTE (European Satellite Channel) and 2 Vandaag in the Netherlands). "Out of Africa" was broadcast for the first time on 13th January 2000 at 11.35 pm on Channel Four Television. Because CNN International is a satellite broadcaster, concerns about violent scenes being broadcast at inappropriate times of the day meant that certain extremely violent scenes were removed. CNN International's film is called "Cry Freetown". It was broadcast on the 3rd February 2000.

Ron McCullagh
Director
Cry Freetown

Why show such violence? | What the Papers say | What did they think?