When the National Film Workshop - the precursor to the Sierra Leone Film Foundation - was first started to help develop the Sierra Leone filmmaking industry, it recognised that this was not a short term project, but one destined to continue for as long as filmmaking itself was being pursued in Sierra Leone.
As a long-term project, with a lot of research and testing to conduct, the founder envisaged the Workshop as a classic bootstrapping project ("to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts, ...a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help, ...bootstrapping is the leveraging of a small initial effort into something larger and more significant").
Like any start-up, the plan was to demonstrate to the world what could be done in Sierra Leone through self-help; by actually putting our own money where our mouths were - and 'doing' it. This was in stark contrast to the rather more common approach seen widely in Sierra Leone, of immediately going to other people for financial assistance before attempting to achieve anything or show commitment oneself. The belief was held that 'if we build it, they will come'.
Since that time in 2005, there have been many in-house projects (as can be seen here on SLFilmNet) and we are now ready to begin formal solicitations for collaborative help and financial support.
We have a number of opportunities for donors, sponsors, funders and even investors. If you would like to find out more about how you can support us, please contact us.
We look forward to hearing from you.