Produced for Weowntv
SURVIVORS Foday
The idea of Survivors documentary was initiated by the Weowntv media center is a media training hub. They came with this idea to shoot this documentary during the Ebola crises in the country. I was fortunate to be one of the cameramen who was contacted to shoot some critical scene in order to spice up the documentary . 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 settlements 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.
- On-Camera Talent