Sisterhood
Logline
Twin sisters Husinatu and Hassanatu decide to escape the bad economic prospects by emigrating to the middle East to become domestic workers. Despite the negative experiences Husinatu had previously in the same adventure, they are adamant that this is the only way out of the expectations of their conservative Muslim family.
Synopsis
Twin sisters Husinatu and Hassanatu decide to migrate together from their homeland, Sierra Leone, to the Middle East in search of better futures for themselves, their children and their parents. Despite the frustrating former experiences with Husinatu in the Middle East, they are now both determined to achieve their goal. Facing the coronavirus crisis, they search for money in order to obtain new passports, visas and travel arrangements through legal and illegal migration agents. The decision to migrate creates a conflict with their parents. The father has always been supportive, but the mother, who wants them to get married and build a life in their own country, tries to stop them. But the twins don’t want a man controlling them and seek independence as they are convinced that a better life is not in their home country. This is a film about family relations, the search for independence, and a better future in opposition to family traditions.
Director
Sessy Kamara
Sessy Kamara (director, writer, director of photography) is a multi-talented filmmaker and human rights activist who advocates for disadvantaged people, especially in slum communities. He became a filmmaker in 2005 and is a co-founder and secretary-general for the Sierra Leone Film Council, the country’s first media-makers union. He is the managing director for Brighter Days Media Pictures, and CEO and creative director for the Sierra Leone Next Movie Star reality TV Show. He has worked as a project officer and director of photography for WeOwnTV Freetown Media Center for seven years. Sessy has worked with Caleb Heymann, a documentary filmmaker from Portland State University Foundation has written and directed two documentary films and worked as a director of photography for an Emmy Awards nominee ebola survivors film, Moving to the beat.
Producers
Fouad Kargbo
BRIGHTER DAYS MEDIA PICTURES
Fouad Kargbo is a human rights activist, producer and director for television broadcast programs and documentary films, screenwriter and cinematographer. He graduated from the Milton Margai College of Science and Technology where he studied Electricals and Electronics. He chose to attend practical courses on cinema and filmmaking from a variety of expert trainers since there is no film school in Sierra Leone. Fouad studied 3D animation and CGI with the Sierra Leone International Film Festival, and documentary filmmaking with the African Film Festival of NYC. Fouad worked in different non-governmental organizations and has produced several feature and short films namely Mporah, Battle for Supremacy, Jemaimah, Gbanabom, Dream Girl and Corvet. He also produced and directed different television programs, such as Parliament and the people, Ar-Risalah, Vocal Drift Inspire and This Day. Fouad also worked as an assistant cameraman on Survivors, Sierra Leone’s first international documentary film to be nominated for the Emmys. Back to the Scars is his first international documentary as a producer.
Don Edkins
STEPS
Don Edkins is a South African documentary filmmaker and producer based in Cape
Town. He has produced documentary film projects that have been broadcast around
the world, such as Steps for the Future, Why Democracy? and Why Poverty? earning
multiple international awards, including an Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side, and the
Special Teddy Award at the 63rd Berlinale for Steps for the Future. The Peabody
awarded Why Poverty? Project, with documentary films from 21 countries, was
screened globally by 70 broadcasters. He is Executive Producer of AfriDocs, a free-to-
view VOD platform and broadcast strand across Africa that screens the best African
and international documentary films. He is currently producing a new documentary film
project with African filmmakers across the continent, Generation Africa, around the
theme of migration. He is a mentor for the Berlinale Talents, Durban FilmMart, and
Docs by the Sea in Indonesia, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Tiny Mungwe
STEPS
Tiny Mungwe is a documentary film and arts producer. She currently works at STEPS
(Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects) where she produces Generation
Africa, a pan-African anthology of 25 documentary films from 16 countries in Africa, on
the topic of migration. Mungwe’s films include Akekho uGogo, a 48 minute
documentary about urban youth culture, which screened at several festivals including
the Durban International Film Festival, Apollo Film Festival and DOKANEMA Festival.
Her short film script Evelyn was selected for the National Film and Video Foundation
(NFVF) Women Filmmaker Project and she directed another short film in the program,
Daddy’s Boy. She has written for some of the highest rating South African television
dramas such as Muvhango and Matatiele, and was one of the directors on the series
Uzalo. For several years she worked as a festival organizer and programmer for four
international festivals, namely Time of the Writer, the Durban International Film
Festival, Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival and Poetry Africa. During that time she also worked on the program for Durban FilmMart (the co-production market of the festival) and Talents Durban (a career development program for emerging African filmmakers in partnership with Berlinale Talents). She continues to work as a program curation associate for the Durban FilmMart. She also programmed and curated the city of Durban’s inaugural book and art fair, ARTiculate Africa.
