Documentary Premiere
Kerry O’Brien host of the 7:30 Report (ABCTV) will launch the much-anticipated documentary Darkness Over Paradise
SATURDAY 5 AUGUST
3.30pm for a 4pm start
Hoyts Merrylands
Stocklands Mall
McFarlane Street
MERRYLANDS
Seating is strictly limited. RSVP by 1 August 2006
T 02 9897 5744
E info@ice.org.au
Contains images of violence
The film is the result of a three year collaboration between the Association of Sierra Leonean Journalists in Exile and Information and Cultural Exchange.
About Darkness Over Paradise
Sonny Cole, Edison Yongai and Abdul Jalloh are three journalists from Sierra Leone now residing in Western Sydney. All were eyewitnesses to the brutal civil conflict of their country, persecuted as journalists for revealing the corruption and savagery they saw.
As refugees to Australia, they formed the Asociation of Sierra Leonean Journalists in Exile (ASALJIE), and have been collaborating with Information & Cultural Exchange over a number of years to produce Darkness Over Paradise, a documentary featuring original footage by Sonny Cole, who as freelance photojournalist recorded this ignoble history through the eye of his camera.
The film is 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 displacement of refugees caused by the conflict – and follows the journalists on their journey to Australia via the refugee camps of Guinea.
Part of this story is the journey of the documentary evidence itself, much recorded on video and carried across the world.
Darkness Over Paradise is a documentary three years in the making, involving a collaboration between ASLJIE and Information & Cultural Exchange, through ICE’s Emerge (Emerging Communities) program and SWITCH Multimedia and Digital Arts Access Centre.
With the support of a range of government and non-government partners, including the Australia Council for the Arts, the NSW Film and Television Office, and the Mercy Foundation – who have supported this project at every stage, as well as Parramatta City Council and Arts NSW, ICE has worked with these journalists and other members of the Sierra Leonean community in Sydney on Darkness Over Paradise, as well as providing training in new media for these already highly experienced journalists, supporting them to apply their craft in the Australian context.
As the documentary neared completion, the journalists worked with ICE in workshops held at SWITCH Multimedia and Digital Arts Access Centre to develop a Darkness Over Paradise Website to promote the film.
Darkness Over Paradise launch: 4pm Saturday August 5 2006, Hoyts Merrylands
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