‘Darkness Over Paradise’
A 60-minute documentary on the experiences of journalists in modern warfare, and the tragedy of Sierra Leone, featuring original footage from Sierra Leonean photojournalist, Sonny Cole.
Synopsis
Sonny Cole, Edison Yongai and Abdul Jalloh are three former journalists from Sierra Leone who now reside in Western Sydney. They tell their stories as eyewitnesses to the brutal civil conflict in Sierra Leone and as journalists who were persecuted for revealing the corruption and savagery at the heart of this conflict.
The film draws largely on the original footage of Sonny Cole, who as freelance photojournalist, recorded this ignoble history through the eye of his camera. Through interviews, he reveals what it was like filming on the frontline and of the soldiers hungry to be immortalised on film. Edison Yongai, the first journalist imprisoned by the government for exposing corruption in the higher echelons of power, talks about the practices of governments who strive to suppress objective reporting and their methods for punishing writers who defy them. Abdul Jalloh, former sports journalist, was witness to many atrocities. He observes how sports stadiums were used for political rallies and mass funerals during the height of the war, while Sonny’s footage shows us the evidence.
The testimonials of these three journalists-in-exile and that of Ms Bintu Kamara, Sierra Leonean community worker in Western Sydney, provide a vivid narrative of the lives of ordinary people and media workers caught up in civil war, the brutal practice of amputation and the enormous communities of refugees created as a result. Our protagonists describe their journey of escape from Freetown to the refugee camps of Guinea and finally to Australia.
This is a rare film, drawing on unique material and insights, and providing the human voices and indelible images of a conflict that has been reduced to statistics. It is a chronicle of the effects on ordinary people of a war that had too many stakeholders for the west to fully comprehend and provides a first-hand look at the refugee experience and the role of the media.