Cry Freetown

Award-winning cameraman Sorious Samura returns to Sierra Leone to expose the horror of his country's civil war that he risked his life to document. In January 1999, the rebel forces of the RUF/AFRC attacked Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. In the following days thousands of civilians were killed. Despite journalists being threatened with death, Sorious Samura filmed on the streets of the city throughout. The footage he filmed is some of the most extraordinary to have come out of Africa in recent history. So disturbing is it that it was hardly seen by the outside world until, in late 1999, it won Sorious Samura both the Rory Peck Award and The Mohamed Amin Award. It was the first time that any journalist had won both awards. Sorious Samura returns to find the victims of the terrible scenes he witnessed and through personal and powerful narration, he explains what's been happening in Sierra Leone and why and challenges the developed world to witness the growing crisis in Africa. His film is a unique and harrowing account of the innocent victims of a civil war largely ignored by the West but which now, despite the reluctance to show real-life violence on televison, is at least being shown to the rest of the world. The film was broadcast on Channel 4 in January 200 and since then has been widely broadcast to a massive audience response.