By Mustapha Kamara
Chief Executive Officer of the local film producer The Ushers has said that Sierra Leone has won the United Kingdom’s Black Entertainment Film, BEFFTA, award for 2014.
Pastor Aiah Momoh told journalists at their Railway Line office in Freetown that the movie ‘The Devil in Sierra Leone’ won best movie for 2014 at the England based award group.
“A few months after it was premiered in the UK, the movie was nominated for the award,” said Pastor Momoh, adding that they didn’t only win in the best film category but also won the best director’s. He said that they could have won such international awards was in a way to tell the world that Sierra Leone could do great things amidst challenges the country was faced with.
“In the midst of the Ebola crisis, Sierra Leone has been able to waive the green, white and blue flag very high and proudly,” Momoh said.
Chairman of the Sierra Leone Movie Federation, Jimmy Bangura, aka Jimmy B, said that that was the first time the country’s movie industry had won an international award.
“We need to rebrand Sierra Leone and change that negative perception that the world has about our country,” said Jimmy B, adding “we’ve been doing that and will continue to do that.” He noted that the awards would showcase and project more positive images of Sierra Leone.
The movie, directed and produced by The Ushers, showed the agony and pains Sierra Leoneans endured in the twelve years of brutal civil war, adding that the awards would be dedicated to all victims who had succumbed to the Ebola virus and the country at large.
© Politico 04/11/14
