Catalyst for Peace presents a film by Sara Terry Fambul Tok Production Notes Directed and Produced by

Marian Koltai – marian.koltai @pmkbnc.com

Freida Orange – Freida.orange @pmkbnc.com

Los Angeles

Rachel Aberly – Rachel.aberly@pmkbnc.com

When I was in high school, I remember reading a newspaper story about a village in Africa – and the way that villagers dealt justice to one of their own who had committed a crime (a theft, I think it was). When the offender was caught, he was brought into the middle of the village to acknowledge his crime, and all of the residents formed a circle around him. One by one, each person addressed the offender by name – and then identified something good about him, something of value in his character. And so it went around the whole circle, the rendering of one judgment after another – not of condemnation, but of affirmation, a determination to bring the offender back to an awareness of his true self, to remind him so forcefully of his own inherent goodness that he would not commit a crime again.

I have thought often of that story– particularly so over the past three years as I have been making Fambul Tok. For a western mind-set, convinced that law and order – and justice – are maintained by punishment and imprisonment, it is a shock to encounter a culture and a people who believe that true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals, and that truth-telling and forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities. It’s more than many of us can wrap our minds around.

In fact, when I first shared these incredible stories of apology and forgiveness from Sierra Leone with a colleague who would eventually become closely involved with the film, his response was, “Wow, so we’re going to look at all these horrible things that happened during the war, and then ask, How on earth can these people forgive it?” I had to explain several times, that no, I did not want to stand outside this culture, apart from these people, and make a film from an incredulous point of view, that demanded them to prove the reality and practicality of these acts of forgiveness. My standpoint as a filmmaker would be to take their standpoint, to let their words, their stories, their lives show me, show all of us, why forgiveness was possible for them. Because maybe then, we might begin to learn why forgiveness is possible for the rest of us.

It was a tricky thing to make a film that tries to let a culture speak for itself while being mindful of a Western audience that I fully expected would be baffled by the idea that truth-telling and forgiveness equate with justice. I was always doing interviews in the field, and working in the edit room, with those viewers in mind, trying to make a film that takes viewers deeper and deeper into this culture of forgiveness, into the fabric of communities that are bound by what South Africans call ubuntu, which means essentially, “Because you are, I am.”

That’s why the film doesn’t build in a traditional way, doesn’t step up from horrific story to ever more horrific story. The film spills out more gently, more subtly – tracking the story of a culture that is being reborn before our eyes, and of a people who themselves are being renewed as they revive their ancient practice of fambul tok, of resolving conflict through conversation.

At the heart of this film, too, is a decision made early on, that there would be no Western voices in this narrative – no Western experts, no Western reporters who covered the war, no Western archival footage. I believe the West has had more than its fair share of opportunity to tell Africa’s stories, to tell the stories of Sierra Leone, to be the arbiters and filters of a culture we don’t even begin to understand. I believe, quite firmly, that we should stop talking about saving Africa – and start coming to this continent and its people – to the people of Sierra Leone -- with the humble desire to learn from their great wisdom. In making Fambul Tok, I have tried to answer the call of Nigerian writer and Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, who wrote:

“We have to re-discover Africa. The first discovery of Africa by Europe was the wrong one. It was not a discovery. It was an act of misperception. They saw, and bequeathed to future ages, an Africa based on what they thought of as important. They did not see Africa. And this wrong seeing of Africa is part of the problems of today. Africa was seen from a point of view of greed, of what could be got from it. And what you see is what you make. What you see in a people is what you eventually create in them. It is now time for a new seeing. It is now time to clear the darkness from the eyes of the Western world. The world should now begin to see the light in Africa, to see its sunlight, to see its brightness, its brilliance, its beauty. If we see it, it will be revealed… Only what we see anew, is revealed to us. Africa has been waiting, for centuries, to be discovered with eyes of love, the eyes of a lover. There is no true seeing without love."

Sara Terry

Los Angeles

February 2011
ABOUT THE CAST & CREW

SARA TERRY (Producer/Director)

“Fambul Tok” is Sara Terry’s first feature-length documentary. A former, award-winning reporter for the Christian Science Monitor (and founding member of Monitor Radio, the Monitor’s public radio program), Sara Terry made a mid-career transition into photojournalism and documentary photography in the late 1990s. The focus of her work since then has been in post-conflict societies. Her long-term project about the aftermath of war in Bosnia -- “Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace” -- was published in September 2005 by Channel Photographics, and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by PDN (Photo District News). Her work has been widely published and exhibited at such venues as the United Nations, Moving Walls/Open Society, the Museum of Photography in Antwerp, and the Leica Gallery in Solms, Germany. She is the founder of The Aftermath Project (www.theaftermathproject.org) a non-profit grant program that helps photographers cover the aftermath of conflict, and builds educational outreach and partnerships around the understanding that “war is only half the story.” She is currently in production on her second documentary, “FOLK,” about three singer-songwriters trying to make it in the changing sub-culture of American folk music. She is also the frequent guest host of To the Point, and Left, Right and Center – public radio shows produced by KCRW, Santa Monica, and distributed to stations nation-wide by Public Radio International.

Elisabeth (Libby) Hoffman has been active in peacebuilding for 25 years in a variety of capacities – professor, trainer, facilitator, program director, consultant, and funder.  A former Political Science professor at Principia College, she left academia to focus on the practice of peacebuilding with an emphasis on making the link between individual and community transformation.  She has developed and led conflict resolution training programs in corporate, congregational, educational and community settings.  She founded Catalyst for Peace (a Portland, Maine based private foundation) in 2003, in order to mobilize and support locally rooted peacebuilding around the world, and to pioneer in communications to bring the stories of this work to the world.

John Caulker founded and has led the implementation of the Fambul Tok program since its inception in 2007, initially through his position as the founding Executive Director of Sierra Leonean human rights NGO, Forum of Conscience.  He is continuing and expanding his leadership of Fambul Tok as the Executive Director of Fambul Tok International.

Mr. Caulker first became a human rights activist as a student leader during the initial years of the war in Sierra Leone.  Risking his life to document wartime atrocities, he infiltrated rebel camps disguised as a rebel to gather information and stories that he would then pass along to international organizations such as Amnesty International, Article 19, and Human Rights Watch.  He founded Forum of Conscience as a human rights NGO in Sierra Leone in 1996.

As Executive Director of Forum of Conscience, Mr. Caulker strove to prevent recurring violence by connecting the root causes of Sierra Leone’s brutal conflict to the need for rural community participation in the national decision making process and acknowledgement of wrong doing to victims through the reparations program.

As the national chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Working Group, Mr. Caulker pressured the government of Sierra Leone to implement the recommendations of the TRC’s 2004 report.  Specifically, he has fought to ensure that some of the revenues from the sale of Sierra Leone’s natural resources benefit Sierra Leoneans themselves in the form of a special fund for war victims.  As part of this effort to raise awareness and guarantee protection for the rights of victims of the conflict, Mr. Caulker also mediated an agreement that allows members of the Amputees and War Wounded Association to participate in the TRC and Special Court process.

ADDITIONAL KEY PERSONEL

RORY KENNEDY (Producer)

Rory Kennedy is an Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning independent documentary filmmaker, as well as co-founder and president of Moxie Firecracker Films. Her films cover an array of issues ranging from poverty to politics to human rights. You may have seen her work on HBO, A&E, MTV, Lifetime and PBS. Kennedy has directed and produced feature documentaries including, "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib” (Primetime Emmy Award winner for Best Non Fiction Film, 2007), Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House, American Hollow, A Boy’s Life, and Pandemic: Facing AIDS.

Brian Singbiel focused his film education on editing at Chapman University, which earned him many honors including a student nomination at the 2003 A.C.E. Eddie Awards. He honed his craft by editing short films, spec commercials and music videos while working with established editors on feature documentaries such as Seamless and America the Beautiful. Singbiel’s first feature documentary as lead editor was the 2008 Sundance hit “Bigger, Stronger, Faster.” His other credits include the 2010 Toronto doc directed by Ondi Timmoner, “Cool It!,” the 2009 Sundance doc, “Dirt! The Movie” and “Exporting Raymond.”

“Fambul Tok” is Henry Jacobson’s first feature-length documentary. He began working in documentary film after graduating from Hampshire College with a project called Bilwas, a film about the lingering effects and public health disaster following twenty years of war in a small Miskito village in eastern Nicaragua. After moving to Los Angeles, he began working for Steven Bernstein, ASC, who became his mentor in cinematography. Henry soon started work on his own documentary feature “Jesus Goes to Hollywood,” and is currently the Director of Photography on two documentary features; “FOLK,” Sara Terry’s second documentary, and “Truth in Translation,” directed by Michael Lessac. This work has taken him around the globe and inspired his latest photo project “Phoenix Flown” which marries his work at home as a fashion photographer with his experience in international post conflict peace building – photographing the work of visionary young designers working in post conflict countries.

In December 2005, Kate Amend received the International Documentary Association’s inaugural award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing for her work which includes two Academy Award-winning documentary features: “Into the Arms of Strangers” and “The Long Way Home.” Amend also received the 2001 American Cinema Editors’ Eddie award for “Into the Arms of Strangers,”, and edited the 2001 Oscar-nominated documentary short ON TIPTOE: Gentle Steps to Freedom.

Israeli composer Issar Shulman won an Emmy in 2008 for his soundtrack for the HBO documentary, “To Die in Jerusalem.” A graduate of the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, Holland, he composes for television, theater, dance, commercials and movies. He also plays double bass with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra.

Catalyst for Peace

Sara Terry

Libby Hoffman

Rory Kennedy

Libby Hoffman

Brian Singbiel

Henry Jacobson

Issar Shulman

Kate Amend, A.C.E.

Henry Jacobson

Eric Becker

Lucy Phillips

Eric Becker

Jake DeVito

Virginia Lee Hunter

Additional Camera

Virginia Lee Hunter

Chris Weller

Still Photography

Sara Terry

Amy Krell

Zachary Haydon

Mike Madrid
Translators

Ali Biko Kamanda

Tamba Kamanda

Peter Mboyawa

Joseph Vandi

Wangdo Fayia Bundor

Archival Research

Allison Terry

Judy Ayley
Musicians

Issar Shulman

guitar, piano, double bass, cello, programming

Adiel Shmit, cello

Alusine Swaray, vocals

Adelide Asiamah, vocals

Grace Dadzie, vocals

Asaf Roth, marimba

Eran Darbuka, djembe
Production Consultant

Amy Shatsky

Lucy Phillips

Glen Scantlebury

Granada Television

Witness

ITN Source

The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Toronto Star

Photo of John Caulker courtesy of Amnesty International

Still Photographs © Sara Terry

Michael W. Mullane, M.P.S.E.

Stephen Fitzmaurice

Donald Murray

Noel Vought

AJ Ullman

Kelly Kroells

Andrew Drapkin

Luke Guidici

Michael Jacks

James Betteridge

Cohen Family Foundation

Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman

Patricia Heaton and David Hunt

Gail Embrey

Alfred Hoffman, Jr.

the staff and volunteers of Fambul Tok

Cara Mertes, Rahdi Taylor,

Kristin Feeley, Win-Sie Tow,

Dyana Winkler and

Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program

Milton Tabbot, Rose Vincelli and

the staff at IFP

Reubin Lim

Ishmael Beah

Lesli Klainberg

Andrea Meditch

Dave Yoder

Amy Potter Czajkowski

Heather Woodman

Tina Leonard

Tammy Mazza

Lois Carlson

Scott Preller

Jeff Jacobson

Seth Johnson

Mark Bailey

Mary Manhardt

Diana O’Donnell

Phil and Monica Rosenthal

Amy Aquino

Geralyn Dreyfous

Dan Cogan

The KonTerra Group

Claire Putzeys

Angie Lederach

Joey Averback

Steven Tannen

Freida Orange

Peter Broderick

Caitlin Boyle

Jon Reiss

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