World in Focus: Sierra Leone

This program will include a speaker (TBA) who will discuss the current situation in Sierra Leone.

Screenings

  • Option G  9:45 am - 11:45 am on Wednesday, January 15 at Showplace
Brownstones to Red Dirt

Brownstones to Red Dirt

Directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker
Sierra Leone, United States  |  2010  |  85 min
Watch the Trailer

When students from Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy projects befriend an orphanage of children and youth living in post-civil war Sierra Leone, the results are truly inspiring. Developed though a pen pal programme, this unique dialogue has an extremely positive effect on both sets of students. By the end of the school year, the kids from Bed-Stuy even organize a fundraiser to help their distant friends. Brownstones to Red Dirt is a compelling documentary that boldly explores some of modern civilization’s most gruelling problems. Its candid realism isn’t always easy to watch, but in the end it offers a positive message for children and adults.

Content Advisory: graphic discussion of civil war, violence, and crime, footage of children re-enacting the civil war in Sierra Leone, religious references