Sorious Samura

Winner: The 1999 Rory Peck Award

Sierra Leonean
“January 6th - Invasion of Freetown”
Shot: January - February 1999
Self funded

The Footage That Can Never Be Shown: -

On 6th January 1999, the rebels invaded Freetown, Sierra Leone. They were threatening to kill every journalists they laid eyes on in retaliation for the video evidence that was used to prosecute those who had overthrown the government of President Kabbah in May 1997. Only a fool would have gone out with a camera in those conditions. A fool… or a very brave cameraman with a mission.

On the second day of their arrival, Sorious Samura, the only person in Sierra Leone with a DV camera, ventured out onto the streets. He was captured, punished, and let off with the warning that should he ever film the rebels again, he was surely a dead man. Sorious was certainly a lucky man. Few survive capture by the rebels, let alone with all limbs intact.

Out on the streets, hiding behind windows, dodging sniper fire, Sorious filmed what was happening in his homeland: people dying in a flaming building, the panic of the crowd, the terror and torture of a 14 year old boy, victims blasted by bullets in the crossfire, fighters having their stomachs or heads shredded by high-velocity bullets. Back home, he would be unable to watch what he had shot. But he continued to film, sometimes keeping his camera hidden always keeping it steady. His films demonstrate that human atrocity knows no boundaries.

This is a savage war: brother shoots brother, mothers are raped by their sons, those appointed as peacekeepers are as capable of brutality as those they are trying to control.

Sorious Samura lives in Sierra Leone, permanently at risk. His life is spent chronicling the unbelievable - so that the rest of the world will believe - and act. "I have to" he says " Who else is there to do it?"

Sorious Samora: Biography
With a background in theatre, Samura turned to camera and video work in 1990 while working as a researcher for Cine Africa. With professional crews from abroad, he worked on three documentary films for UNICEF Freetown and produced a 10-minute documentary "Giving them a Chance." He also trained staff of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service Television and the Sierra Leone Leprosy and Tuberculosis Control Programme. Since then, as a freelancer, he has worked on a variety of projects. In the UK, where he trained in editing techniques at Leeds Metropolitan University (1995) Samura produced a 20 minute documentary for the Southwark Afro Carribean community on minority food production in the UK and a 15-minute teaching documentary video on Sickle Cell for the Department of Health. In January 1999, he was commissioned by the Government of Sierra Leone to produce a documentary based on the events of January 6th in Freetown. Samura is currently setting up his own video/film production company in Sierra Leone.

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