ENC: Survivours (With Q&A)

The Bioscope is proud to welcome back The Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival.

Tickets: R60

Survivour

Dir Anna Fitch, Lansana Mansaray, Arthur Pratt, Banker White

Sierra Leone/ USA

2017

84 minutes

Survivors is an account of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Shot and produced by a collective of West African filmmakers during the outbreak (which also spread to Liberia and Guinea), the film is unusual in that was made largely by the community it documents, rather than by outsiders. As such, it is extremely close to the ground and provides a very visceral sense of the pain, suffering, and social dislocation that occurred during the epidemic, as well as the profound sense of relief when the transmission of the virus ground to a halt. Filled with warmth, humanity, and a remarkable cast – from an ambulance driver to a young homeless boy to a pastor-cum- filmmaker – Survivors is an insightful chronicle of a public health epidemic in the face of limited resources.