MediaStorm
00:00/00:00
00:00/00:00

Founded in 2006, Shine on Sierra Leone (SOSL) is an innovative non-profit cultural partnership. Over the past eight years, SOSL has provided 2,800 students with a highly reputable primary education, granted 7,000 women micro loans, trained 12,000 individuals in computer literacy and 600 individuals in adult literacy, as well as launched a maternal and child health care program for 50,000 individuals.

Shine On tells the story of SOSL’s evolution from a traditional charity to an organization that fosters personal development as a tool for social transformation. This unique philosophy and pedagogy has had phenomenal results--most notably elevating its primary school from number 736 in the district to number 2.

Published: May 31st, 2016

Credits

Produced for
Commissioned By
A film by
Director, Editor & Director of Photography
Field Producer & Additional Photography
Motion Graphics
Partnership Development
Executive Producer

Recognition

Pictures of the Year International

Year: 2016

Place: First

Category: Multimedia Photographer of the Year

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism

Year: 2016

Place: Third

Category: Multimedia Portfolio


Related Links


Goal

Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm to tell the story of Shine On Sierra Leone, an innovative education based cultural partnership. The film would be used to rally financial support for the organization through their partner Cash & Rockets, on a fundraising tour that ends at the Cannes Film Festival.


Case Study

Shine On tells the story of Shine On Sierra Leone (SOSL) and its amazing trajectory to becoming one of the top primary education providers in rural Sierra Leone. The film premiered as part of Cash & Rocket’s 2015 Tour, a fundraising tool culminating at the Cannes Film Festival, in which women philanthropists drive across Europe in luxury cars to raise awareness and funds in a show of female solidarity for charities in Africa.

Though the film was conceived as a tool to rally financial support for the Cash & Rocket Tour, it evolved into an awareness raising tool with much farther reach. At the time of filming, Sierra Leone was recovering from the Ebola epidemic. To respond, SOSL provided emergency healthcare and other services. While that response was critical, it diverted resources from one of SOSL’s primary goals--to build a secondary school that would provide growth and development opportunities to graduates of its successful primary school.

The narrative of the film reflects this incredible organization’s journey, as told by its founder Tiffany Persons. Viewers learn about the challenges and unique pedagogy that has enabled SOSL to become an anchor in a rural community and an opportunity for growth for its many residents.

The film premiered at an exclusive Cash & Rocket event at the culmination of its 2015 tour, at the Chateau di Pizay near Lyon, France to a community of over 70 women. The film was a key element of the fundraising drive for Shine On Sierra Leone and this year, it raised more funds than in previous years during the tour.


Challenges

Our first challenge was navigating shooting and producing in Sierra Leone due to the high risk of Ebola in the country. Ascertaining reliable information that pertained to Kono district of Sierra Leone proved to be more difficult than we expected. After weeks of deliberation and time lost, we ultimately decided to take the risk and travel with a small team to the country. Each of the members of the team returned home safely.

The film was originally conceived to focus on one student at Muddy Lotus Primary School (SOSL’s signature program). However, the date for the reopening of schools kept shifting and the team kept waiting on travel until a date could be ascertained. We ultimately had to leave before schools reopened, thereby constructing a new narrative for the film.

We were left with less than a month to shoot and deliver the project.


Opportunities

After lengthy discussions with the Tiffany Persons, Shine On Sierra Leone’s founder and director, we decided to center the documentary on her personal narrative, from the inception of the organization to the current struggle with Ebola. We were limited in what we could represent visually because the school was shut down, but hearing the stories of the students desperately wanting to return to school, with visuals of a big, empty school provided an uncanny tension to the end of Tiffany’s narrative.


Outcomes

A cultural tableaux that tells Tiffany’s personal story which lead her to Shine On Sierra Leone, starting with her investigation of the diamond mining industry to the present day where the students are waiting to go back to school. The film offers a unique reflection on the limitations of a charity, and an inspiring message that social change must start within one’s self.


About The Client

This film was a collaboration with Harbers StudioCash & Rocket, and Shine On Sierra Leone.

Harbers Studio brings human and environmental issues into focus through the power of visual media. This film was made possible by Harbers Studio with its CEO Renee Harbers serving as Executive Producer.

Cash & Rocket brings inspiring women together for the ultimate adventure of a lifetime. Through female solidarity, its aim is to raise money for charities around the world. Each year, Cash & Rocket hosts a tour through Europe, in which its members drive sports cars to raise awareness and funds about the charities its supports. In 2015, Shine On Sierra Leone was one of the featured charities.

Shine On Sierra Leone strives to shine a light on Sierra Leone’s needs and create sustainable programs to promote thriving self-sufficient communities.


Donate

Given the extremity of the Ebola crisis going on in West Africa, and the fact that Shine On Sierra Lone is the only organization providing aid in the region of Kono, we are asking for your help. Please donate to Shine On Sierra Leone today so that we can support our communities with relief, access to tools for prevention, and to spread awareness about this disease.


MediaStorm Project Showcase

Back from the Brink

Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the Santa Catalina Island Fox made a dramatic recovery. Its resurgence marks one of the greatest conservation success stories in United States history.

Lights in the Shadows

In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. Skyrocketing housing prices in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that impacts everyone in the community.

Zora J Murff

This page recognizing Zora J Murff for ICP’s 2023 Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism features a film about his life, a slideshow of his projects and extra clips of his thoughts about his work and motivation.

Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado says "a good picture, a fantastic picture, you do in a fraction of a second, but to arrive to do this picture, you must put your life in there."

Esther Horvath

Esther Horvath has sent questions to the universe and she has received answers. She found her calling to tell visual stories that show the full research story behind our climate data.

Acacia Johnson

See photographer Acacia Johnson’s growth from her earliest explorations of Alaskan landscapes to a National Geographic cover for a documentary project among indigenous people of the Arctic.

Don McCullin

Sir Don McCullin never intended to become a photographer. He found it hard to believe he’d ever escape the poverty of North London. But a spur of the moment photograph launched McCullin into a career spanning 50 years in photography.

The War Comes Home

As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O’Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.

Zadie Smith

Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture.

Fight Hate with Love

As a formerly incarcerated person, Michael struggled for work, and found purpose in being a husband, father, and activist. But 7 years since his release from prison, the cost of Michael’s activism is evident.

The American-Made Benny

Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.

Amber Bracken

Photographer Amber Bracken recognized something deeper than a protest was afoot when hundreds of tribes gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A Shadow Remains

How does the death of a child change a parent? How does the death of a parent change a child? How do these moments change us as we develop and grow further away from who we were as children?

Maurice Berger

Maurice Berger–cultural historian, and columnist for the New York Times’ Race Stories–has spent his career studying and teaching racial literacy through visual literacy. 

Japan's Disposable Workers

Japan’s Disposable Workers examines the country’s employment crisis: from suicide caused by overworking, to temporary workers forced by economics to live in internet cafes, and the elderly who wander a town in search of shelter and food.

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.

The Last Move

Michael Thomasson has devoted his life to video games. It’s been his passion and his obsession for more than three decades. He owns over 11,000 unique game titles for more than 100 different systems.

Michael Christopher Brown

A film about Michael Christopher Brown for the 2017 ICP Infinity Awards.

The Long Night

The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.

Jonathan Harris & Gregor Hochmuth

Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth have a complicated relationship with the internet and have worked together to develop an artwork that explored some of the more difficult consequences of what it means to live with the internet.

Inside Tracks

In 1977, Robyn Davidson walked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. National Geographic sent Rick Smolan to photograph her perilous journey—a trek that tested and transformed them, forming an immutable bond that continues to this day.

Driftless: Stories from Iowa

Once at the center of the U.S. economy, the family farm now drifts at its edges. In Iowa, old-time farmers try to hang on to their way of life, while their young push out to find their futures elsewhere. Driftless tells their stories.

Common Ground

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 27-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land.

Remember These Days

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.

Art: Larry Fink

Larry Fink has spent over 40 years photographing jazz musicians, wealthy manhattanites, his neighbors, fashion models, and the celebrity elite. His archive is a thoughtful collection of American history, and Fink’s experience of it.

LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.

Tomas van Houtryve

Tomas Van Houtryve wants there to be a permanent visual record of the dawn of the drone age, the period in American history when America started outsourcing their military to flying robots. In order to create this record, Van Houtryve sent his own drone into American skies.

Evgenia Arbugaeva

Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the magical town of Tiksi, Russia. This barren, arctic landscape influenced Arbugaeva in almost every aspect of her dreamlike photography.

Surviving the Peace: Laos

Surviving the Peace: Laos takes an intimate look at the impact of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam war in Laos and profiles the dangerous, yet life saving work, that MAG has undertaken in the country.

A Thousand More

A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.

Lynn Johnson

Inspired by the photographs of the Farm Security Administration growing up, Lynn Johnson has spent nearly 35 years as a photojournalist working for LIFE, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and various foundations.

Resetting The Table

Resetting the Table takes a unique, personal look at the impact Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA program has had on the American Mug & Stein pottery facility in East Liverpool, Ohio.

Hungry Horse

Hungry Horse captures the spirit of renewal, peace and serenity through stunning landscapes and intimate oral histories.

The Amazing Amy

Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.

The Bride Price

In many countries, girls as young as eight are forced into marriage by their families, culture and economic situation. This practice destroys their chance at education leading to tragic results.

David Guttenfelder

Surreal and mysterious, North Korea was a black hole to outsiders wanting a glimpse of the country. That all changed in 2012, when AP photographer David Guttenfelder led the opening of the bureau's newest office inside the North Korea.

Take Care

Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.

A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan

Based on 14 trips to Afghanistan between 1994 and 2010, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan is the work of photojournalist Seamus Murphy. His work chronicles a people caught time and again in political turmoil, struggling to find their way.

Intended Consequences

In Rwanda, in 1994, Hutu militia committed a bloody genocide, murdering one million Tutsis. Many of the Tutsi women were spared, only to be held captive and repeatedly raped. Many became pregnant. Intended Consequences tells their stories.

The Marlboro Marine

To those who serve in the armed forces, what is the aftereffect of war? The Marlboro Marine is photographer Luis Sinco's portrait of Marine Corporal James Blake Miller, whom he met in Iraq. For Miller, coming home has been its own battle.

Ivory Wars

Zakouma National Park is one of the last places on earth where elephants still roam by the thousands. In a land where poachers will slaughter the huge animals for their tusks alone, it takes armed guards to keep them safe.

Kingsley's Crossing

Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's dream to leave the poverty of life in Africa for the promised land of Europe. We walk in his shoes, as photojournalist Olivier Jobard accompanies Kingsley on his uncertain and perilous journey.


Collaborate With Us

We collaborate with a wide range of clients to tell their story. Our services include reporting, post production, interactive design and interactive packaging.

The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet. 

Learn storytelling, filmmaking, video, multimedia production and business skills through MediaStorm’s intensive, hands-on workshops and in-depth online training resources.



Powered by the MediaStorm Platform

The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet. 


Follow MediaStorm


Copyright 2025 MediaStorm, LLC | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Contact


See more at MediaStorm