It was an interesting trip to Madrid for me this month. I lived in Spain as a teenager, in a small town in Granada, and have returned many times. Some of my best memories from that period of my life are from Spain, so that country and its landscape hold great meaning for me. On this trip, I had come to Madrid to participate in the Madrid Documentary Festival. Four years earlier my film, LIBERIA: AN UNCIVIL WAR won the festival’s Audience Award. This time I returned with THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION, a short documentary based on a Redemption Road, a novel by Liberian writer Elma Shaw. Elma wrote about Bendu, a young woman who was forced to join the rebel army as a young girl, during her Liberia’s nearly two decade long civil war. The novel takes place in the years following the war, when Bendu finds herself overwhelmed with guilt and shame for her actions while under threat of death.

I met Elma Shaw a little over a year ago, when I was in Liberia making a film for Amnesty International about women after war. Amnesty International wanted to highlight the lack of reintegration support for women who had been child soldiers during the war. Elma had returned to work with an NGO after living in the Diaspora (in Washington DC). The Amnesty International Producer, Tania Bernath had met Elma at the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings. Tania and I were both immediately drawn to Elma’s spirit and intelligence. When I found out that she was about to finish her book, it struck me as an intriguing device to include readings from her book as narration for a film.

I wanted to make a film that had a different spirit than maybe the more typical documentary about war. Certainly it would include the fear, violence and tragedy that the war created, but it would also be gentle and hopeful, even loving, for there is something about the women we met and worked with – Elma, Florence Ballah, Jackie Redd and Mickey Kesseley – that struck me as both powerful and empathetic. Indeed, I accessed the footage from the one shoot to make both the Amnesty piece and THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION. The films are different though, Redemption Road is a bit more poetic and WOMEN OF LIBERIA: FIGHTING FOR PEACE for Amnesty International is a more utilitarian portrait.

I actually shot this film. Mostly a decision that was required under the circumstances (I was the only one who had any experience shooting) and in fact I loved it. It is very healing and satisfying to be the shooter and the director. I wonder now, could I shoot other films? Not feeling confident about my hand held capacity, the entire movie is shot from a tripod. At least no shaky shots… Clearly there are some films that require hand held, but this one worked very well with a more controlled aesthetic.

My recommendation to young documentary filmmakers is to learn all the skills for filmmaking (camera, sound, editing) so that they can, if there is no other choice, do it themselves as well as up the chances of being hired for other filmmakers work…If I could it over again, I’d have learned them all.

NYU’s Global Affairs Graduate Society invites you to:

The Road To Redemption

A journey with former female child soldiers of the Liberian Civil War as they attempt recovery and rehabilitation in a post-conflict society.

Film Screening and Q&A with Emmy and Academy Award winning filmmaker Jonathan Stack

NYU’s Center for Global Affairs

15 Barclay St, Woolworth Building

Monday Oct 20th at 6:30 pm

Room TBA

RSVP to gags.nyu@gmail.com

Feel free to forward onto interested parties.

A HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR PRODUCTIONLike so many in Liberia’s long and gruesome civil war, the true number will never be known, but it’s estimated that 30-40% of the combatants were women and girls. Illiteracy, chaos, and brutality prevented all but a few from partaking in UN-sponsored disarmament programs. These young women witnessed and participated in unspeakable violence, and were almost universally and brutally raped. How do societies and individuals heal the profound psychological wounds such acts inflict? Jonathan Stack’s intimate journey with them captures the courage and dignity with which these women seek their own path to forgiveness and redemption – to, in the words of one, "become a human being".

Producer and Director: Jonathan Stack

Co-Director: Susan Shea and Lila Place

Camera: Jonathan Stack

To further your journey go to www.hcdmediagroup.com International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2008

Director’s Biography

Jonathan Stack is a multiple Emmy Award winning and two- time Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker. During his career Jonathan has written, produced and directed over 25 films and 50 television programs including The Farm, which was honored as Sundance Film Festival’s 1998 Grand Jury Prize winner. He has distributed his films through HBO, BBC, Channel Four, Discovery Channel, A&E–among many others. While working as an independent filmmaker he earned a reputation for his unique ability to gain access into forbidden and even dangerous worlds. His exclusives include, President Charles Taylor’s farewell speech to the nation of Liberia (Liberia: An Uncivil War) and a rare interview with David Miscaivage, head of the Church of Scientology (Inside the Church of Scientology). In 2008 he produced Iron Ladies of Liberia, a film that tells the story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president. Over the years he has consistently found a way to explore difficult subject matter often in intractably dark circumstances and despair, transforming it into stories of hope and possibility that reflect his ultimate belief – that by telling positive stories one helps to create a more positive world.

We are thrilled to announce that our film, The Road to Redemption has been accepted into the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.