Waging Peace: Liela’s Journey
Waging Peace campaign to raise awareness over the human rights abuses in Sudan and support those seeking refuge in the UK.
In late 2023, I worked with them on a podcast for Haringey Welcome. They asked if I could produce and direct a filmed interview with Liela, who had recently visited her family in Sudan for Eid, but was forced to flee the country after fighting broke out between the RSF and SAF forces.
The original intent was to simply record her story so Waging Peace could use it to campaign government agencies in the UK and abroad. I worked with the charity to find the most sensitive way to film her - in this case using an i-direct so it felt like she was talking to me face-to-face. Liela came in and told her story quickly and without pause in two, 40 minute single-take sections.
There were natural inconsistencies and missing sections to Liela’s story, so I arranged with Waging Peace to record Liela again, this time just with audio. As I tried to edit the film and audio interviews, I continued to talk with Liela and she started to share videos her family had sent her from Sudan.
A story took shape as I learned about Liela’s role in Waging Peace’s Peace by Piece project. Liela was committed to raising awareness over Sudan and I wanted this part of her life to be in the film. I filmed her marching at the International Women’s Day march with Waging Peace. I started to explore animation treatments to describe her journey. I experiemented with AI before choosing a more realistic style that used Google Earth Studios to trace Liela and her brother’s path and kinetic typography to express the different characters she meets along the way.
I set up a production company (Fable), and built a team to work on the film. The edit and the animation became tighter, a soundtrack was commissioned and another shoot arranged - this time in Liela’s home after she was finally reunited with family in Egypt.
The final film is a unique and personal account of the war in Sudan. It gives scale and human context to the implications of violence on women and a generation of Sudanese men who are given a stark choice: boat or boot. Flee or fight.
I learned so much during the project. I had to think about the impact the project would have on Liela and the other members of the crew. Making the film encouraged both myself and Waging Peace to consider the way interview subjects give their consent. We wrote a unique agreement that gives Liela an equal say in the way her film is shared and shown with others, and in doing so we moved the process of filming Liela’ story from extraction to collaboration.
Awards: Best Short Documentary, Luleå International Film Festival
Credits
Produced & Directed: Tom Newman
Producers: Sonja Miley and Maddy Crowther
Production Assistant: Simon Glass
Director of Photography: Adam Docker
2nd Unit Photography: Sandra Potoczanin
Sound: Adam Docker, Tom Newman
Edit and animation: Tom Newman, Matthew McKinnon
VFX: Hector Miller
Grade: Adam Docker & Hector Miller
Stills: Adam Docker
Darfur Photography: Brian Steidle
Original music composed by: Alex Stoloff
Sound mix: Matt Allaby
Translation: Bushra Rahama
Social media clips & stills: Liela
Map imagery: Google Earth Studios
Fable 2024