Sierra Leonean-Canadian

Filmmaker Ngardy Conteh

Shares Her Story.

What's Yours?

Features by Tambay | April 20, 2012

 

Continuing on with the S&A tell your story feature I introduced a couple months ago... here's one from a filmmaker that I'm sure we'll be talking about in coming months/years; I'm surprised we haven't already written about her before.

Her resume is quite impressive, and she's clearly on her way to a steady, stable career as a filmmaker.

Say hellow to Ngary Conteh, and remember that name :)

I saw your post a little while ago that I should reach out and let you know about myself and my projects so I can be on your radar and hopefully be featured on S&A, here goes…

My name is Ngardy Conteh, I’m a Sierra Leonean-Canadian filmmaker (director/editor/producer) based in Toronto, Canada.  I have one main project I want to share with you, my first feature length documentary in early production “Leone Stars”.  It has raised funds on Kickstarter, was the first documentary to ever win the Toronto International Film Festival’s Pitch This!, a recipient of a Sundance Documentary Fund development grant and myself and co-director Allan Tong attended the Sundance Film Festival as a part of Documentary Fund Fellows Program.  And most recently we will be pitching at the prestigious Hot Docs International Film Festival Forum this May.

I am currently here in Sierra Leone continuing to film “Leone Stars”, just about mid-way through my six-week trip.  Coincidentally, the first ever Sierra Leone International Film Festival took place this weekend here in Freetown.  A documentary I directed with the Sierra Leone community in Toronto “The Circle of Slavery” was screened at the festival and I lead a workshop/discussion on the craft of editing/my experience as a female filmmaker.  It has been an incredible weekend to be able to connect with the local Sierra Leonean filmmaking community especially a few female filmmakers here.

My short bio:
NGARDY CONTEH co-director/editor/producer
As a Sierra Leonean-Canadian, Ngardy Conteh always wants to tell stories of the African Diaspora.  As a director she has achieved this with "Soldiers for the Streets", a short documentary for the NFB, broadcast on CBC Television and "Literature Alive", a documentary series featuring Caribbean-Canadian authors broadcast on Bravo!.  She is also an accomplished video editor working on various documentaries and television shows including "I Want to Be a Desi 2" (documentary short, Dir. Allan Tong), "Something Beautiful" (1/2 hr documentary on development in Kenya), "Cypher" for AUX TV, "Arts & Minds" for Bravo!, "The Rhyming Chef Barbuda", "Food & Drink TV" and currently "The Marilyn Denis Show" for CTV.  She is a former scholarship athlete and graduate of the University of New Orleans.

More info: www.mattrumedia.com

("Leone Stars" is now being produced by my production company Mattru Media, named after the birth place of my parents in Sierra Leone, I haven't had the opportunity to update my website yet).

More about "Leone Stars":
"Leone Stars" follows the amputee soccer players of postwar Sierra Leone as they struggle to reach—and win—the World Amputee Football Championships scheduled to take place in late-2012.

Website: www.leonestars.blogspot.ca
We’re also on Facebook & Twitter: @LeoneStarsDoc
Our trailer: http://leonestars.blogspot.com/p/trailer.html?m=1

Hot Docs Forum news:  http://realscreen.com/2012/03/27/hot-docs-reveals-forum-picks/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hot-docs-reveals-forum-picks

Link to TIFF PitchThis!: www.tiff.net/industry/programmes/telefilmcanadapitchthis

Link to Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/973681195/leone-stars-a-documentary

Link to Sundance:
http://www.sundance.org/press-center/release/29-documentaries-receive-582000-in-grants-from-sundance-institute-documenta/

You can also check out a series I producer/direct/edit with my husband who is The Rhyming Chef.
Www.youtube.com/TheRhymingChef
Www.therhymingchef.com

Hope to hear from you soon, and I will continue to send updates as my film and other projects progress.

Take care,
ngardy

Thanks for the thorough email Ngardy, and yes, you're now most certainly on my "radar." Good luck the rest of the way.

Be sure to follow all those links she provides and see what's at the other side of them.

Here's then trailer for Leone Stars: