Tyson Conteh

Bio

My name is Mohamed S Conteh aka Tyson, son of Pa Alimamy Conteh and Ya Dankey Mansaray, born in a family of three siblings. At the age of ten I lost my father and my elder brother became the sole provider of our family. When the rebel war reached Makeni, my sister was killed right in front of my mother and me, for denying to be raped. A few years later, my elder brother died suddenly of an undiagnosed illness, leaving back four children and his two wives. His death took with him my very life, my dreams. I had a mother and four children to provide for and send to school so I had to stop schooling and look for ways to raise money, starting with motorcycle (okada) transport rider. In 2009, I met WeOwnTv director Banker White and crew who provided me with the opportunity to learn about filming. That’s how I find myself in the movie world today, and now I am a founder and director of a local young film makers organization called Future View Film Group.

Reflection

Working with Sacred has taken my life to another level in filming. It was a learning process for me and I have built my confidence to believe that I can work with any film organization all over the world.

Although I was aware of the stigma surrounding Ebola survivors and Ebola orphans, when I was digging to find the subjects for Sacred, I found out that a lot is untold to the public. Through filming, we have saved lives by allowing them to tell their stories and giving them a sense of purpose and meaning. After the shoot, our subjects are now more welcome in their communities than before. I have been following up on them, especially Victoria and Mohamed, bent on doing anything within my capacity to help revive their lives.

Once again I want to say thank you to Sacred for giving voice to the voiceless and I want the world to know that it was an honor to work with Sacred from Sierra Leone. I enjoyed the experience and hope to continue working with many other film organizations.