About the film
Through the trial of a rebel leader in Sierra Leone, a nation faces its wartime past. Now international justice is on trial for the world to see.
War Don Don
— BY Rebecca Richman Cohen
status
Completed
type
Nonfiction
year
2010
director
Rebecca Richman Cohen
producers
Rebecca Richman Cohen, Francisco Bello, Abu-Bakarr Jalloh, Jim Butterworth, David Menschel, Daniel J. Chalfen
Synopsis
In the heart of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, United Nations soldiers guard a heavily fortified building known as the “special court.” Inside, Issa Sesay awaits his trial. Prosecutors say Sesay is a war criminal, guilty of heinous crimes against humanity. His defenders say he is a reluctant fighter who protected civilians and played a crucial role in bringing peace to Sierra Leone. With unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, and, from behind bars, Sesay himself – War Don Don puts international justice on trial for the world to see, finding that in some cases the past is not just painful, it is also opaque.
About the team
Rebecca Richman Cohen (Director) is an Emmy Award nominated documentary filmmaker and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School since 2011. Rebecca was profiled in Filmmaker Magazine‘s 25 New Faces in Independent Film as an “up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film.” She has taught classes on the intersections of film and law at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), American University’s Human Rights Institute, and most recently at Columbia University.
Her films have been broadcast on public television, HBO, Al Jazeera, and the homepage of the New York Times website and have screened in government venues including Congress, FBI Headquarters, the State Department, and the Department of Justice. Rebecca graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and with a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She was a 2012-2013 Soros Justice Fellow.
*Rebecca is also the director of Code of the West, a Cinereach supported film.