In celebration of Sierra Leone’s 50th Anniversary of independence, and in the spirit of preserving and promoting Sierra Leone’s cultural wealth, AFF launched the Sierra Leone Cultural Conservation Project (SLCCP) in early 2011. Through the power of documentary arts, the SLCCP provides a public platform for Sierra Leoneans to preserve and celebrate their shared culture. In 2008, AFF Founder and Director, Mahen Bonetti identified her home country of Sierra Leone as the first site in Africa where AFF would establish an ongoing sustainable media arts program. Troubled by the overwhelmingly negative images that penetrate daily life in Sierra Leone, and also by high levels of youth unemployment and displacement since the country’s civil war ended in 2003, Mahen sought a way to revive the cultural values and expressions that underpinned the Sierra Leone that she recalled from the post-independence, pre-war period; to provide outlets for Sierra Leonean youth to connect to their shared cultural heritage; and to help expand the country’s fledgling audiovisual sector. The program contributes to the revival of traditional culture, local artistic approaches, and spaces for education and dialogue.

Team
Mahen Bonetti, Executive Director; Fouad Kargbo, Program Manager; Valona Taylor, Head Tutor; Hellura Lyle, Program Consultant; Morgan Seag, Program Consultant; Idriss Kpange, General Manager

ADVISORY BOARD
Columbus Sumner, journalist, writer; Sarah Bonkapre Kamara, journalist, producer; Josephine Kargbo, Acting Curator, Sierra Leone National Museum; Sullivan Khallon, freelance videographer, photographer; Ian Noah, independent filmmaker; Jumoke Osode, peacebuilding consultant

If you are interested in this program or for more information, please contact us: slccp@africanfilmny.org