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Filming wraps in Freetown

Co-director Ngardy Conteh (in profile) and cinematographer Colin Akoon prepare to film inside a player's home, a windowless 64-square-foot room.

 

Leone Stars just wrapped up filming in Sierra Leone.  The fourth and last shoot took place earlier this month in steamy weather, topping 42C each day and 36C at night on the humidex, mostly in the capital of Freetown.  For nearly two weeks, co-directors Ngardy Conteh and Allan Tong with cinematographer Colin Akoon and local fixer Hashmiyun Magona filmed various amputee soccer players at their homes and workplaces, streets and villages.  Here are some images from the shoot:

The Freetown team sqaures off against the Bo team on their turf, in the interior of the country.  Final score: 1-1.

Freetown captain, Bornor, training to be a generator repairman.  
Almost all Sierra Leoneans run diesel-powered generators, because the electric grid is so unreliable.

Cinematographer Colin Akoon mounts a light steadicam unit to the back of a moving motorcycle taxi ("okada") 
to follow an amputee also travelling by okada.

Mohammed of Freetown's team being interviewed in his office, owned by a German company.  
Mohammed supports a young child alone.

The aunt of the Bo provincial team captain, Umaru, interviewed as she cooks in her smoky hut.  
From top left to lower left: intern Amanta, cinematographer Colin Akoon, fixer Hashmiyun "Hash" Magona 
and co-director Ngardy Conteh.

Following Bornor's weekly jog from the back of our Toyota 4x4.  
Amid traffic, Bornor runs for one hour from his home in Freetown's Leceister Peak to Aberdeen Beach.

The steering wheel of a mini-bus in Freetown.

Cinematographer Colin Akoon panning atop a hill near Fort Street in downtown Freetown.  
In one minute, he will be covered in heavy rain.

Fixer extraordinaire, Hashmiyun "Hash" Magona

A shantytown in overcrowded Freetown where few enjoy running water and where cholera struck last summer.

The sun sets over Aberdeen Beach as the Freetown amputees wind down their Sunday practice.

All photos by Allan Tong and cannot be reproduced without Allan's strict permission.

LEONE STARS Win Sundance Doc Grant

Toronto (November 23, 2011) - Leone Stars is the lone Canadian recipient of the Sundance Institute's latest round of feature-length documentary grants. Last night, Sundance announced the 29 filmmaking teams that will receive grants from its Documentary Film Program. The Sundance prize arrives two months after the film's historic Pitch This! victory at TIFF, where Leone Stars became the first documentary to ever win that pitch competition.

Leone Stars follows the amputee soccer players of postwar Sierra Leone as they struggle to reach—and win—the World Amputee Football Championships scheduled to take place in Iran in late-2012. The film is directed by Allan Tong and Ngardy Conteh of Toronto.

Practicing on the beaches of Freetown, March 2011 (photo: Johnny Vong)

Leone Stars is presently in the development stage. With the Sundance and TIFF wins, Conteh and Tong are planning another trip to Sierra Leone, this winter. “I’m trilled that the two most important two festivals in North America have helped us to make the film,” says Conteh. “Our dream of bringing this story to the world is one step closer to a reality thanks to Sundance.”

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2012 and since its inception has awarded grants to more than 300 documentary filmmakers in 61 countries.

“For many of these filmmakers, receiving a grant will be just the beginning of our relationship with them," said Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance DFM Program. “We welcome these filmmakers to our community and look forward to working with them to further support and develop their unique visions."

- 30 -

For further details: http://leonestars.blogspot.com/

Click for the complete Sundance press release.

Drumcultures online interview with directors Ngardy & Allan

Toronto's Drumcultures online magazine recently spoke to Leone Stars directors Allan & Ngardy in downtown Toronto. Click volume 3-23 at Drumcultures.

Video: CBC Soccer Day in Canada Interview

Leone Stars directors Allan Tong & Ngardy Conteh spoke to CBC-TV's Scott Russell on July 9:

Pics from the CBC Soccer Day in Canada Interview

Here's a few pics I snapped with my phone as Allan and I got ready to be interviewed on CBC for Soccer Day in Canada. Thanks to everyone who tuned in!

To get one of our stylish t-shirts click here.

-ngardy

Ngardy getting make up

 Allan getting beautified!

 Floor director Bob and host Scott getting ready for the interview

 Allan in deep thought...Ngardy, getting one more pic before the cameras roll

 Much better Allan, ready for the camera now!

All smiles, all done!

We will hopefully post the interview online within the next week when we get a copy.

Leone Stars directors on CBC Soccer Day July 9

Leone Stars creators Ngardy Conteh and Allan Tong will be on CBC-TV sometime between 11:00am and 11:30am (EST) on Saturday, July 9. They will be part of CBC's Soccer Day in Canada, an all-day celebration of The Beautiful Game. CBC will air an excerpt of their footage and interview them about Leone Stars. Tell your friends and tune in! (Available in Canada only.)

video: the crew sets up in Bo province

Here's a quick and dirty video of the crew setting up in Bo, shot by photographer and production assistant Johnny Vong. That's co-director Ngardy Conteh holding the boom mic, and cinematographer Colin Akoon wearing the camera on a Steadicam:

Farewell & thank you, Sierra Leone

The crew are wrapping up a long, hard, but productive shoot that has seen its share of adventures. P.A. Johnny writes as he leaves Sierra Leone:

Got away from the big city for a few days, loved the sweet folks in Bo and Matru. People of Sierra Leone have nicknamed me JOHNNY BE GOOD. Swarm of children spontaneously broke out in song just for me (got video!). We stopped traffic in the crowded streets, and just about everywhere we went. Turned down a marriage proposal from an 11-year-old village girl.

Amazing time.

Filming the Saturday practice & visiting Bono Kabo

Ngardy has sent notes about filming the weekly team practice last Saturday on Aberdeen Beach in Freetown. The beach rests on the shores of the Atlantic and is the only time each week when all the players meet. Otherwise it's extremely difficult for Ngardy to reach the players since hardly any have a phone of any kind, never mind access to e-mail.

Some shots Colin took, mostly Movcam*:

* team publicist Wizzy welcomed me to the team

* Wizzy introduced me to every member of the team

* the team sang their song, then surrounded me singing it

* coach talking to team, on sideline and in the middle of the beach pitch, coaching, yelling

* scrimmage/practice games, they split into 3 team and rotated playing 10-15 minute informal games at a time

* we lav-miked [portable microphone attached to person] the coach during warm-ups and drills and various players (including Bono Kabo) during the scrimmage games

* players after practice putting on their prosthetic legs, chatting

Game last fall. Since uploading images from Sierra Leone is slow, Ngardy's images will be sent later

After practice we took a break to dump footage [to portable hard drives so that the camera had film new footage] and eat lunch. Then we went to Aberdeen road where seven members of the team live.

Also that weekend, the crew visited the site of the refugee camp where the team met in 2001 and formed the club. Why are some players still living here, long after the end of the war? The camp is gone, but they're still on this spot?

Ngardy: They were very vocal about this. They have nowhere else to go--waiting for a donor or an angel to get them out of there. Or the gov't to care.

Ngardy then visited the home of one of the players, Bono Kabo. After listening to Fiona Aboud's 2007 interviews I suggested that Gad interview him. He sound articulate, passionate and intelligent.

Bono, went to his place, a two-bedroom house but with no electricity or running water. He built it himself. His eldest child is in boarding school so she wasn't around.

We spent about four hours with him. Colin followed me and him on Steadicam as we walked to his house. Mostly talked about how he got his house. Shot him while he made a meal for his kids outside on coal pots.

His interview was very captivating. He wept when talking about becoming a soldier, speaking in detail about that experience, and losing his limb.

More to come....

Shooting in Freetown: Ngardy's notes

Ngardy writes from an internet cafe in Freetown. Messages from her lately have come from her cell phone across the Atlantic to Allan. As she explains:

So, we haven't been to the internet cuz we've been exhausted at the end of everyday shooting and it is quite an effort to get to the cafe.

Shooting from 9-6 everyday - in the hot sun - very exhausting. Getting to be late after dumping the footage to hard drive, getting used to the dogs, roosters, and the 5-hr time difference has also impacted all of our sleep [DP Colin Akoon & PA Johnny Vong]. But spirits are high and we're having an incredible experience.

Shooting in public: pretty much you have to seek permission before you can even hold a camera in public if you are not a local. The general feeling is that foreign media has come here and exploited peoples' images. Understandable.

Yesterday, we had [team publicist] Wizzy and some team members walk around the streets. Since they were are focus and this took place around their office people we were fine shooting the cameras in public.

Shooting in Freetown

Ngardy, Colin and Johnny are busy shooting. There's no time to waste, especially in a land where you're lucky to have a telephone or any sort of internet. Ngardy has access to an internet cafe which has been as slow as mud. But she has been texting me (Allan Tong) every day. Let me pass some of her notes. (Sorry, no photos right now. They take too long to send from Sierra Leone:)

* Interviewed the Minister of Youth Employment & Sports.

* Having issues with Colin & Johnny on the street. Locals don't like foreign cameras on them.

* Excited with filming the team practice Saturday morning at Freetown beach.

* Got great shots of kids playing soccer.

* Player interviews: Bono interview went very well.

* Another player, Momellah, isn't around, but found a very captivating guy in the group interview yesterday.

More to come, hopefully with more text and a photo.

One step closer to the Leone Stars

the players in Freetown, fall 2010

Ngardy has been busy since stepping off her transatlantic flight last week. She writes from a noisy internet cafe in Freetown:

I spoke with soccer team spokesperson Wizzy. We are going to meet up to discuss the game plan for shooting. The team wasn't able to practice last Saturday as they usually do, because the city was shut down for cleaning. All the roads are blocked once a month to clean the streets. However, Wizzy says the players are excited and will definitely hold a practice next Saturday.

All in all, I am in very good hands and confident I'll find some priceless footage. Very excited.

Ngardy

Ngardy arrives in Freetown

From Ngardy:

Saturday, March 12, 2011

I arrived in Freetown last night after a long 8.5-hour flight. Arriving in Lungi Airport in Sierra Leone: I was a bit surprised at how thick the air was especially for 9pm at night.

Getting through immigration and customs was effortless and my cousin Hasmiru who is also our guide for this trip was waiting for me at the airport entrance with a huge crowd of people. He'd didn't need a sign since we "met" each other for the first time on Facebook the day before!

From there we drove to the ferry dock. The ferry ride was one hour, a comfortable ride as we rode in "first class" ($2 instead of $1) to sit in the enclosed space with a bar and music playing.

Impressions: I do not feel like I'm in a foreign land. I do feel very comfortable here, surrounded by my brothers and sisters. I've described it to my husband as being at a Sierra Leone community function in Toronto transplanted to the backdrop of St.John's, Antigua.

The buildings, building materials, the bright-coloured walls and hand-painted billboards, the abundance of cell phone company signs and advertising, the stalls on the streets, people liming, music playing -- all felt familiar.

I have touched base with Wizzy, the representative for the amputee football team, they were supposed to practice today, but the city is barricaded for street cleaning so it had to be canceled.

It's almost midnight and I feel more awake now than I have all day!

Ngardy

Ngardy's Journey Begins

I started traveling to Sierra Leone yesterday, I'm going a few days ahead of the team to save airfare. I flew out of Barbuda yesterday morning and spent the day in Antigua waiting to board my next flight. The butterflies are still dancing in my belly, a mixture the anticipation of finally going to Sierra Leone after all these years coupled with the pressure of shooting this documentary....

6 Questions with Johnny Vong

1) You're volunteering to help as a production assistant on this shoot. How come?

Strange, lovely, impeccable timing. I was in Barbuda for Ngardy's wedding in January when she told me that this project was all ready to go... crew, money, everything was coming together. I was very happy and excited for her. When I returned to Toronto, I got the unfortunate news that I've been laid off from my full time job....After telling her my story, I simply asked if I could come along with her to Sierra Leone. I agreed to pay for everything including my plane ticket with whatever money I had saved up. We both agreed: I was crazy.

2) In two sentences tell us about yourself.

I am a filmmaker, photographer, devoted cinephile. I'm adventure-seeking, energetic and passionate.

3) How do you know Ngardy?

We met while working together at a small production company many years ago.

4) How are you preparing?

I am reading a lot about the people and history of Sierra Leone right now. There's a lot of emotional territory for me to explore, and I know this research will greatly inform the thematic ideas around the images I capture.

5) Any expectations of what you'll see and experience?
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the quality of life there is very low. I'm not expecting a holiday retreat. I'm expecting to experience first-hand what life in a country so recently ravaged by war, corruption and violence really feels like.

6) What do you intend to shoot?
We'll be shuttling back and forth between a quiet village and the busy city mayhem of Freetown. It's been ten years since the end of civil war, so it's an incredible opportunity to be able to capture the mood and atmosphere of a country rebuilding, with all its optimism as well as heartbreak. I will be using the images I capture from this project for a personal project...a kind of Chris Marker style film, a hybrid of narrative fiction and documentary, something kind of poetic, essayist or travelogue in form and genre.

10 Questions for Director Ngardy Conteh

1) First, how do you pronounce your name?

I always tell people it’s like "Daddy." but with a ‘G’. The ‘N’ and ‘R’ are silent. My name is traditional spelt "N’gadie," "Ngadie" or "Ngady," but my father (who was a linguist) altered the spelling of my name, as he did with all my siblings.


2) What's your connection to the subjects of this film?
I was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone to Sierra Leonean parents. You can say the subjects of the film are my countrymen.



3) How did you get from Sierra Leone to Canada?
My father came to Canada to pursue his PhD at the University of Toronto on a Commonwealth Scholarship, he brought my family with him when I was three-years-old


4) Who will you film in Sierra Leone?
We will film a range of people, but the focus will be on the players on the single-leg amputee soccer team.


5) What do you wish to learn from them?
I want to learn how they are have been able to adapt to life post-war, what is the driving force behind their desire to be a part of the team. How playing soccer has helped them transcend the obstacles in their lives.


6) Beside the capital of Freetown, will you film elsewhere in Sierra Leone?
We plan on traveling to the villages of Bo and Mattru Jong, and possibly another village, the plans are unfolding each day.


7) What will the climate and conditions be like in SL?
What do you expect to see and feel when you set foot on SL soil?
SL is gearing up to celebrate their 50th anniversary of independence at the end of April, so I imagine the vibe with be very positive getting ready for the celebrations. There has been lots of re-building over the years since the end of the war but there is still a lot to be done.
I’m not sure how I will feel, I’ve imagined this moment for so many years, excitement definitely. I don't have any childhood memories of Sierra Leone so I am hoping just the smells and sites of Freetown will trigger memories.


8) How did you find your director of photography, Colin Akoon?
Colin and I worked several years ago on a television documentary series. He was the DP and I was directing a few episodes. We worked very well together. I trust in his creative skills, and instinct and I always wanted to work with him again if the opportunity arose.


9) How's your family helping you with this shoot?
Myself and the crew will be staying with my extended family while in Freetown and in the villages. They have leant their support and knowledge thought this whole process, especially my mother. The Sierra Leone community in Toronto has also been very helpful as well.

10) What's the theme behind this film? The message?
Belonging. Hope. Strength. Resilience. Finding dignity and belonging through sports.

Filming in Freetown in March

Director Ngardy Conteh cinematographer Colin Akoon will journey to Freetown and neighbouring villages from March 15 to 30 to capture the life stories of the Leone Stars amputee soccer team. Ngardy and Colin will also visit some of the villages from where the players hailed -- and escaped during the civil war.

Joining them on this trip will be Toronto photographer, Johnny Vong, who is generously donating his time to take pictures and help Ngardy and Colin.

During that war, the players were boys and young adolescents when rebel soldiers hacked off their arms and legs. This film will tell those stories and the hope that their team gives them in surviving in post-war Sierra Leone.

Ngardy will be blogging while she is there. Subscribe to this blog to receive regular updates.

This shoot is funded by generous donors through a recent Kickstarter campaign and a grant from the Toronto Arts Council.

Despite that, the production team is on a tight budget (nobody is making a dime off this film) and we're looking for a deal on P2 cards for our videocamera and a boom mic kit. If anyone in the Toronto area can offer us a reasonable rate on either or both items, please contact co-producer & writer Allan Tong. Thank you!

Next post:
Meet the film crew of the LEONE STARS documentary.

Cheers,
Allan Tong
Co-producer/writer

The Leone Stars play in Spain

The Leone Stars played in Spain last month, thanks to a generous donation from a cell phone company.

AllAfrica.com reports:

One of the leading mobile phone giants in the country, Africell, continues their relentless support towards football in the country with the donation of US$6,000 to the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club, ahead of their international trip to Spain.

Before handing over the cheque which equivalent to Le32.7 million, Africell's head of event and sponsorship, Arthur Kallon said supporting the single leg football team is no a difficult assignment for them as they've done several times in the past. He said: "In Africell we are committed in reaching our target, if we are supporting the two legged football in the country we see no reason why we should not support the single legged. This is not the first and will not be the end of our commitment to supporting sports in the country. We will continue to do more."

Photo by Fiona Aboud

President of the Amputee Sports Club, who also doubles as the team's goalkeeper, Jabati Mambu said he was pleased with the response from Africell, adding that this was not the first time the company has come to their aid.

He said: "Since we started this club in 2001, Africell has been our lead supporter. We thank them for this and will continue to pay them back, which is our obligation."According to Mambu, despite getting less support from Sierra Leoneans, the team has achieved and will continue to achieve lots of excellence internationally.

Before their departure yesterday with a 14-man delegation, the team's public relations officer, Albert Mustapha said their trip to Spain came after they received an invitation from three different sporting bodies from the European nation, including One Goal Association, NGO Esport Solidari International in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Sports and other sporting associations in that country.

He said during their stay, the team will participate in a tour of promotion for peace and sports in Barcelona, Burgos and Cadiz cities.

demo footage by Associate Producer, Fiona Aboud

Some sample footage of the Leone Stars amputee football (soccer) club, shot in 2007 by associate producer and New York photographer, Fiona Aboud