Survivors
TFI Suppport
Logline
Through the eyes of Sierra Leonean filmmakers, SURVIVORS presents a portrait of their country during the Ebola outbreak, exposing the complexity of the epidemic and the socio-political turmoil that lies in its wake.
Banker White
Director/Producer
Banker White is a multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker based in San Francisco whose work has been celebrated for a uniquely intimate approach to telling large-scale social issues. From war and disease to the complex dimensions that surround aging and death, his work is unified by a compassionate humanism. Banker is the director and producer of the award-winning documentary, The Genius of Marian, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS's award-winning series POV in September 2014. Most recently, he co-directed and produced the Peabody and Emmy Award nominated Survivors (IDFA / POV 2018), which aired on POV in the fall of 2018 and continues to tour the international film festival circuit. Banker also directed Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars (POV 2007). The film was nominated by the IDA for best feature in 2006; won Grand Jury Awards at AFI Fest, Full Frame Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival; and earned Audience Awards at SXSW and the Miami International Film Festival. Banker is currently in production on Heaven Through the Backdoor, a multi-platform documentary about dying that has received support from the Sundance Documentary Fund, SFFILM, the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Creative Work Fund, Pacific Pioneer Fund and the Headlands Center for the Arts. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Tribeca Film Institute, Impact Partners, LEF, DocSociety, SFFILM, the Catapult Film Fund and the Fledgling Fund. Banker also founded the WeOwnTV Freetown Media Center, a collaborative filmmaking and storytelling project in Sierra Leone, which is supported by Creative Capital, Freedom to Create, The Bertha Foundation, and BAVC.
Anna Fitch
Co-Director/Producer
Anna Fitch is an Emmy award-winning director based in San Francisco. Anna’s documentaries have aired on PBS, BBC, National Geographic Channel and Channel4 UK, among others. Most recently she directed Octopus: Making Contact ,which aired on Nature (PBS), Natural World (BBC) in 2019, and co-directed and produced the Peabody and Emmy Award nominated Survivors, which aired on POV (PBS) in the fall of 2018. Anna co-directed the feature documentary, The Genius of Marian (2013), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on POV in September 2014. Her film BugWorld: War of Two Worlds won an Emmy for Best Documentary Directing in 2003. Her narrative short The Burning Wigs of Sedition (2010) screened at the National Gallery of Art and film festivals worldwide. Anna is currently in production on Heaven Through the Backdoor, a multi-platform documentary about dying that has received support from the Sundance Documentary Fund, SFFILM, the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Creative Work Fund, Pacific Pioneer Fund and the Headlands Center for the Arts. Anna's past work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tribeca Film Institute, the MacArthur Foundation, Doc Society, the Catapult Film Fund, The Fledgling Fund and the Bertha Foundation.
Arthur Pratt
Co-Director/Producer
Arthur Pratt is a Sierra Leonean filmmaker and community leader based in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Arthur is a co-founder of the Sierra Leone Film Council, the country’s first media makers union. He has started and leads multiple community film and theater groups, collaboratively writing and performing numerous films and plays with ex-combatants, former child prostitutes and community members. He is a co-founder and manager of the WeOwnTv program in Sierra Leone with numerous credits and awards for the films and plays he has produced. Film credits include; CHARITY 2010 (Writer/Director) which revived festival awards at the Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles, Cinema by the Bay San Francisco, Semana del Cine Experimental de Madrid, Spain. Black Sugar 2011 (Director, Writer and Camera), They Resisted 2011 (Director/Writer), Hustler 2011 (Director, Writer and Camera), Gift of My Eyes 2012(Filmed and Editor), M'Pora 2012 (Camera and Editor)
Lansana Mansaray
Director of Photography
Lansana Mansaray aka Barmmy Boy is a multi-talented director of photography, filmmaker and musician who lives in Freetown Sierra Leone. Barmmy is a founding member and the current production manager at WeOwnTV. He has been honored by the British Council on numerous occasions and has be selected to travel abroad representing the creative youth of Sierra Leone to London, Hull, Copenhagen, Abijan and Accra. Film Credits include YOUTH, (Director/2010), CHARITY 2010 (camera), They Resisted 2011 (Director of Photography) and Disability is Inability (Director of Photography/in production). He has worked as a cameraman and fixer on many award winning international productions including, Decisions (2011), Girl Rising (2013) They Are We (2014) and the Emmy award winning Meet the Africans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013).