We spend a lot of time in this slot telling you, the loyal Screengrab reader, about the ups and downs of independent film. We've also addressed, not always with tongue out of cheek, the travails of the documentary filmmaker. But we're dead serious when we tell you that being a documentarian can be a dangerous, and even deadly, business. That's where Andrew Berends comes in, and this is where you can really help.
Berends is a documentary filmmaker who's never shied from going to dangerous places to pursue his art. He's perhaps known for two feature films he did during an extended stay in Iraq: When Adnan Comes Home and the deeply affecting The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq. (Berends also worked on "Gangs of Iraq", one of the more effective Iraq War segments of TV's Frontline program). Recently, while researching a story on corruption and violence in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, Berends, his assistants, and several translators were arrested by the government and accused of spying. Thanks largely to an outpouring of coverage in the film press and the assistance of the French organization Reporters Without Borders, the last of them were released last month.
However, that's hardly the end of his troubles. The charges, which carry no proof whatsoever, are nonetheless quite serious, and both Berends and his Nigerian translator, Samuel George, face ruinous legal fees which they contracted while combating the heavy-handed government attempt to shut down their story. If you'd like to learn more about the case, or better still, if you'd like to help contribute to defray Berends' legal fees and send a message that this kind of attempted censorship of documentary film won't go unanswered, you can visit the "Help Andy" website, here.
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