Sweet Salone

infobox film
name = Sweet Salone


director = Sieh Samura
associate producer = L. Blaze Samura
editing = Arno Kuhlein
released = 2008
country = USA
website = http://www.sweetsalone.com

weet Salone, "2008"

"Sweet Salone" is the "cinema verite" style independent film by "Sieh ("C-ya") Samura", which introduces audiences to the new urban music culture and generation of Sierra Leone, West Africa. Sweet Salone is approximately 80 minutes in duration and features many of the country's most famous music artists. It is the most comprehensive collection of Sierra Leonean music artists in a single feature length production, and is therefore an integral document of the new music culture emerging from Sierra Leone. Some of the artists that appear in Sweet Salone are Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, "The Dry Yai Crew, Sahr Issa, Kao Denero, K-man (Bingoman), Alonzo, Threat Girls,Chosan" and others. It was filmed on a shoestring budget in November and December of 2007, while the country's capital city of Freetown had no regular electricity. [http://www.sweetsalone.com]

New Music of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, just like much of West Africa is experiencing a change in its popular music culture. Western style "Rap, Reggae, Dancehall, R&B, and Grime" have begun to have an impact on the new music generation of Sierra Leone. The wars and civil conflict throughout West Africa [http://www.cryfreetown.org/] , have resulted in a decrease in the presence of the traditional music artists. The internet and spread of western culture has encouraged the youth, of countries like Sierra Leone, to express themselves through new styles of music. Many of these songs have had political and social themes in them and have played a role in informing the populace and checking politicians (Emerson, Daddy Saj, etc.). The independent film, "Sweet Salone", displays many of these artists, fans, and their music.

ieh Samura

Sieh ("C-ya") Samura is an American born, independent filmmaker and artist, with a Sierra Leonean father. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and was an 88m in the "1164th Transportation Company" from the Massachusetts Army National Guard. He has a media production company called "Wun Deuce Media Productions" in Boston, MA, USA, and happens to be a distant cousin of award winning video-journalist Sorious Samura. [http://www.wundeucemedia.com] "C-ya" was very vocal, and wrote an open letter and several articles about Kanye West's mistreatment of Sierra Leonean rapper and music artist, Chosan, who helped Kanye pen his Grammy Award winning song, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone".

External Links

* [http://www.sweetsalone.com Sweet Salone Official website]
* [http://www.cryfreetown.org Cry Freetown]
* [http://www.wundeucemedia.com Wun Deuce Media Productions website]
* [http://www.mediacorpus.com Media Corpus]