Survivors Film & COVID19
Trust Hope & Solidarity
The Survivors team will be hosting conversations around the film across social media platforms, focusing on what we can learn from Sierra Leonean community members, faith leaders, medical workers, and artists about their experience with the Ebola outbreak in the context of our current COVID-19 pandemic. We feel grateful to contribute our work towards this collective effort.
We will be sharing on facebook @WeOwnTV, twitter @WeOwnTV and instagram @survivorsfilm
The goal of this new work will be to provoke relevant discussion around some of the film’s core themes: highlighting the importance of community solidarity, showing gratitude for our medical workers, warning the dangers of misinformation, underscoring the importance of trust and patience, and of course, celebrating stories of recovery. Here is a link to our updated discussion guides and educational resources.
We want to thank our broadcast partners POV and Al Jazeera who are working to make the film widely available. SURVIVORS will be rebroadcast on Al Jazeera on March 25, 2021 at 8 PM GMT
If you are interested in planning a virtual event you can also reach out to the Community Engagement Team at POV.
If you are an educator, please contact our partner Documentary Educational Resources.
You can also rent via Vimeo On Demand here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/survivorsder.
Since we launched this campaign in early April, COVID-19 has also now reached Sierra Leone and the filmmakers at the Freetown Media Centre have again been producing and distributing public health messaging. We have shared some examples of this work below.
Thank you to POV, Documentary Education Resources, the Sundance Institute, the Rockdale Foundation, the San Francisco Arts & Artists Relief Fund, and the Points North Institute for supporting this effort!
If you would like to support this work, please use the link below. Donations of any size would be meaningful to keep our small but dedicated team productively engaged during this difficult time.
Wase Hand...Sev Liyf. In this educational PSA, we hear from a man named Hassan, an Ebola survivor who is determined to educate his community on preventive measures of COVID 19. Listen for instructions from your local government about staying home #MaskUp and over mouth and nose in public with a cloth face mask Keep a safe distance from others Clean hands often and disinfect frequently touched surfaces at home Don't touch your eyes, nose or mouth Cover coughs and sneezes with your elbow or tissue Story by Arthur Pratt Music by Minister Mathew Lansana Cast Hassan: Arthur Pratt Wife: Winifred Vaki Visitor: Rashid Kamara
Here is a message from nurse Margaret Kabba Sessay, recorded on April 28th in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Margaret worked at the EMERGENCY Ebola Treatment Centre in Freetown and is now preparing for COVID-19 in Sierra Leone. Thank you, Margaret, for your selfless service - you are a strong, compassionate, and beautiful soul!
Thank you, POV for making our film SURVIVORS available again on PBS.org. Watch #SurvivorsFilmPBS, an intimate portrait of Sierra Leone during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. NOW STREAMING: https://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/survivors/video-survivors/
And thank you all our partners, ITVS, National Endowment for the Humanities, Tribeca Film Institute, Doc Society, MacArthur Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Rockdale Foundation, Bertha Foundation, Catapult Film Fund, Creative Capital, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Documentary Educational Resources, First Hand Films and GlobalGiving. #SurvivorsFilmPBS #StayHomeSaveLives #AfricanHeroes
This is an excerpt from the film SURVIVORS. In this scene we meet nurse Margaret Kabba Sessay who is working at the EMERGENCY Ebola treatment center in Freetown. We see her put on her personal protective equipment (PPE) then settle into the seriousness of treating the Ebola patients in her clinic. She keeps her important work a secret because she worries about the stigma she would face in her community and even in her own family if they know she was talking care of patients with Ebola. #SurvivorsFilmPBS #StayHomeSaveLives #AfricanHeroes
This is an excerpt from the feature-length film SURVIVORS. The scene opens with a wide shot of Magazine wharf, a densely settled slum area in Freetown. We see a volunteer Ebola sensitization worker as she walks through the narrow passages shouting public health messages through a bull horn: “Good morning everybody. We have come from Sierra Leonean Red Cross to talk to you. Anyone who has a sick person at home, you must bring them to a hospital. If someone has died, do not touch them or wash them. If they find out you have washed a dead body, Government will send you to prison for fifteen years.” We then meet Foday Koroma whose friends all call him ‘Superb the King’ has been living on the streets together with his friends for the past four years. He and his mates, Jesse, Sheka and Arata find their survival by picking through trash piles on the streets for scrap metal and other salvageable items they can use, barter with or sell. Foday ran away from an abusive home situation when he was ten years old. Their situation has become even more With the Ebola crisis. We see them swim in polluted waters and try to sleep in recently quarantined homes of those who have died from Ebola. The National Ebola Response Committee and WHO have described these informal settlement as the most vulnerable and have sent thousands of healthcare workers and volunteers to both educate door to door and find Ebola-affected individuals before symptoms overwhelm. #SurvivorsFilmPBS #StayHomeSaveLives #AfricanHeroes