A Brand New School, A Return Trip to Salone

At the end of the month, we'll be embarking on a return trip to Sierra Leone to attend the opening of the BRAND NEW SCHOOL built by your efforts. We're pretty thrilled.

We're definitely going to be meeting with the kids from the film and doing a "Where are they now?" update. Follow us on Twitter (@Dave_LaMattina, @chadnwalker, @clayfrost & @Copper_Pot) where we'll post all the pictures and videos throughout the trip.

More Progress at the School Site!!

A New School, Overlooking the Sea

If you haven't already heard the news, work on the new primary school in Sierra Leone has begun! Thanks to Schools for Salone and all of our incredible donors for making this a reality! Here's the email from Joseph, our local contact, with all of the details:

Dear Cindy & Others,

The Children In Crisis Primary School Building Project site was visited by me, Mamusu, Isatu Abu at Allen town over looking sea by Lungi area. A plot of land 75 feet by 100 feet a quiet place but terrecing of the land is needed in order to have the proposed building on two levels. On the 12th Nov. the ground breaking ceremony was carried out by whole school pupils, teachers parents, coomunity members and MCF staff members. After prayers by Christians and Muslims, the groung breaking were done by following:

Isha Kamara girl class 1 pupil
Daniel Sesay boy class 5 pupil
Isatu Sento Kamara Propraratress
Mamusu Tarawali Co.Prpratretress Head teacher
J.S Kanu MCF/SFS/Donor Representative
Lahai M. Tarawali Community "

The ceremony concluded with refreshments to all. The terrecing of the land started with 10 strong men on contract from the community and Lansana's team. The terrecing is expected to last for 2 to 3 weeks. You willposted on development.

Attached are pictures on the visit to the land and the ground breaking ceremony. With special thanks and appreciation to the Donors and Schools For Salone USA from the school and MCF.

With regards
J.Williams-Lamin & Others.

Thanks to Aspen FilmFest!

A big thanks to the excellent folks at Aspen FilmFest for screening Brownstones last week and for bringing nearly 100 students to the show! We're planning a special video Q&A with some of the local schools later this fall. More details to come on that!

And here's some additional press from the festival:

Directors LaMattina and Walker follow sixth-graders from an elementary school in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., which as recently as 2005 was declared an “impact zone” due to the excessive violence in the community, who were paired with students in war-town Sierra Leone for a school year-long pen-pal program.

“Usually movies that have anything to do with Africa are all about shock value and people’s limbs getting cut off with machetes,” Walker said. “But for me, personally, when I see that type of stuff, I shut down because the problem is too big. So we made a conscious effort to not use footage like that, and just let the kids tell their story. Which, I think, is more powerful.”

Brownstones in the Aspen Daily News

Damien Williamson over at Aspen Daily News gave Brownstones a very nice shout-out is his festival preview story:

But it is perhaps in the quieter films, like “Brownstones to Red Dirt,” that the true character of Filmfest emerges. In the movie, sixth-graders from an elementary school in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., which as recently as 2005 was declared an “impact zone” due to the excessive violence in the community, were paired with students in war-town Sierra Leone for a pen-pal program.

Co-director Dave LaMattina had been working in an animation studio, and was looking for “a project with a little more meaning.”

“I had done a film in South Africa on kids with HIV and AIDS,” LaMattina says. “So I was looking for something along those lines. And what I really wanted to do was find a story where there was hope in a community where you wouldn’t expect it.”

The results were astounding. The kids in Bed-Stuy were able to gain perspective on their own lives through interactions with the orphaned children that struggled for food, water and electricity — though who still had similar goals and aspirations — in Sierra Leone. And the African children gained something that had been denied them for most of their lives: someone who cared.

Countdown to Aspen FilmFest!

In just five short days, Brownstones to Red Dirt will be one of just twenty films to screen at the 32nd annual Aspen FilmFest. All of the screening details are here. We are so excited to be a part of this truly independent festival that aims to focus on the "human spirit." As the festival's Artistic Director Laura Thielen recently told the Aspen Daily News, "We tend to look at ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

That's exactly how we see the kids that star in Brownstones - Balla, Emmanuel, Augusta, Abdul, Fred, Destiny, Malik and Isaiah. They are ordinary kids doing extraordinary things, as they reach out and offer their hearts to strangers on the other side of the world.

Thank you RIFF!

Hey everyone! Happy summer! We just wanted to thank the Rhode Island Film Festival for screening Brownstones this week. The festival is the largest public film event in New England with more than 200 films this year. Check out all of the details here.

We are really honored to be a part of it – even though we aren’t able to be there! We're incredibly disappointed to miss the other films and festivities.

There are lots of exciting things coming up though, including a screening in Bed-Stuy this fall and the construction of the school is Sierra Leone. Many more details to come!