By Mohamed Tyson Conteh | Director
Here is an update on my film Speaking Through Dreams.
The death of my girlfriend Fatmata was not only devastating to her close family and friends, but it was regarded as a tragedy across the country. Our local papers covered the story, and I recently found an original copy of one of the articles. This began a new inquiry to follow some of the leads in that story as a part of the film. I reached out to the Dr. who was interviewed for the story. He was the same doctor who performed the autopsy on my Fatmata. It was very difficult to reach him as he is the only Pathologist in the whole country. He has not yet agreed to be filmed on camera but did agree to meet and discuss. Either way, I am planning to meet him in Freetown within the month to ask him about it all. I have also contacted the journalist who covered the story and he has now consented to an interview for the film. We have learned through our investigation that multiple people were involved in changing the result of Fatmata’s autopsy, including and we are confident that justice will be served through our efforts.
If you need a refresher on the details of Fatmata's story, here is the logline again for our film:
Speaking Through Dreams is a haunting, bold and genre-bending film. As the Protagonist and director, I embark on a spiritual journey to investigate, the unnerving circumstances surrounding the death of my girlfriend Fatmata, who bled to death after a forced female circumcision ritual. My mission is driven by the fact that, shortly after her death, she appears nonstop in my dreams angry, crying and restless and insisted that I bring the genuine cause of her death to light for her to rest in peace.
I saw my Fatmata in my dreams again two days ago. She is angry but understanding that things have not yet turned out the way we wanted. There is so much uncertainty in the world right now and for me personally my responsibilities have increased with the passing of my mother. She was also very forgiving of her mother who has now admitted to the truth on camera of the circumstances behind Fatmata’s death. After this confession and her mother has been offering prayers and pleading with her on her grave for forgiveness. In the dream, we also discuss recreating the dreams in the film and some very fond memories that we both never forget. She suggested filming with birds peacefully living in the forest. At first, I was still skeptical, not sure of what would be best for the film, but in my respect for her, I have decided I will film a scene with birds in the forest.
Your support has been so valuable to our team as we continue this project. I look forward to sending another update soon. Our team has been busy editing and I have commissioned a new editor to begin work on a new work sample. We have been in close contact with our grantors (WeOwnTV and HotDocs BlueIce Group) and they are helping us find new partners to support the film. If you are able to support the project again, it would be so meaningful as we move towards bringing the project into the world and launching our campaign to help eradicate FGM in Sierra Leone.
With Gratitude,
Tyson
Links:
By Lawrence | Director
By Tyson | Director
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