Sam Liebmann bio

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I began my documentary filmmaking journey in 2006, shortly after graduating with a degree in Sport Journalism. I travelled to northern Israel to volunteer as a coach for Football4Peace, an initiative by the University of Brighton and the Football Association, which brings Jewish and Palestinian children together through football. I arrived on the first day of the first Israel-Hezbollah war, giving me an immediate, firsthand experience of life in Israel and Palestine during a time of heightened conflict. Witnessing the injustices of the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian West Bank, I felt compelled to find a way to share these stories with the world. That moment sparked my decision to pursue documentary filmmaking.

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In 2007, I produced Voices Across the Wall (37’), a documentary that captures personal stories from both Israelis and Palestinians. The film was selected for the London Independent Documentary Festival. That early passion I had to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be one of the central questions of my work.

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In 2009, I travelled with my wife to her hometown of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where we volunteered for six months with União de Mulheres (Union of Women), a grassroots organisation in the Rocinha favela. What began as a short documentary about a family impacted by violence and extreme social inequality eventually evolved into my first feature film, More Earth Will Fall (Vai Cair Mais Terra). The project, filmed over the course of eight years with Lee McKarkiel, grew into a deeply collaborative effort, involving filmmaking workshops with local partners. The film was completed in 2017 and was officially selected for festivals worldwide, including Athens Ethnofest, Ethnografilm Paris, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, and Frames of Mind Vancouver. We also organised an impact and outreach screening tour in Brazil, partnering with the University of São Paulo’s Centro de Estudos da Metrópole, which included 25 screenings and forums combined with workshops.

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In 2012, I began my work in Sierra Leone with UK-based charity, Purple Field Productions, creating an advocacy documentary about children who live and work on the street. Through PFP, I learnt the value and the method of making films for local impact through a process of rough cut consultations in the field with the target audience, and of alternative local distribution such as cinema projector kits powered by pedalling and solar in order to reach places with no electricity.

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Over the next five years, I worked part-time for PFP, coordinating filmmaking training for young filmmakers in Sierra Leone. We developed a range of films, from disability awareness to sustainable farming practices, always with an emphasis on local impact. Due to the lack of electricity in large parts of the country, we distributed the films using the pedal and solar-powered cinema kit to reach those who traditionally have little or no access to film or media. This method and the principle of grassroots film distribution is a model I’ve since used on other projects in Sierra Leone, as well as in Brazil and Ghana.

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As the filmmakers in Sierra Leone developed their skills, we collaborated on several international broadcast documentaries that addressed human rights issues, including Kush: Into the Mad World (25’), Lady P and the Sex Worker Sisterhood (52’), Wahala: Coronavirus in Sierra Leone (6-part series), and Standing Among the Living (37’).

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In addition to my independent documentary work, I have produced advocacy and promotional videos for NGOs across countries like Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Germany, and Luxembourg. These organisations include the International Paralympic Committee, Namati, CARE Sierra Leone, and Voluntary Service Overseas. Much of this work overlaps with documentary filmmaking, as both involve capturing real-life stories.

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One of my most notable projects was The Husband School, produced for VSO, which focused on a Sierra Leonean programme where men learn about gender rights. The project won the Sustainable Development Goals in Action award at the UN High-Level Political Forum in 2018. This led to developing the story into an Al Jazeera English documentary, also The Husband School (25') of the same name, which I directed for their Witness strand (produced by Black Leaf Films). It got a special mention for the Television Award at One World Media 2020.

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My ongoing interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has remained a consistent thread throughout my career. I volunteered twice more with Football4Peace and co-wrote an article titled Football for Peace? Bringing Jews and Arabs Together in Northern Israel. In 2017, I completed an MA in Zionist Ideology and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at SOAS, University of London, where I also studied Hebrew and Arabic. My dissertation focused on the Israeli secular ideological settlement movement.

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A core aspect of my filmmaking has been building lasting relationships with the communities and individuals featured in my documentaries, particularly in Israel and Palestine, Sierra Leone, and Brazil. The filming in Brazil is ongoing, now totalling more than a year’s filming inside Rocinha favela, with many of the same participants I started recording in 2009, as well as working with local social projects. I am currently developing a documentary based on the stories collected over these last 15 years.

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Due to the partly-ethnographic approach to the making of More Earth Will Fall, I got to know sociologists and anthropologists from the UK and Brazil working on similar themes and who share a similar approach to working with subjects. In 2022, I started working with researchers at the University of Bristol on the European Research Council-funded project, Modern Marronage, the Pursuit and Practice of Freedom, which explores and counters mainstream discourse on human trafficking and modern slavery. As part of this project, I collaborated with asylum seekers from East Africa on the documentary Voices from Ipswich, which was co-created with the participants, empowering them to play an active role throughout the filmmaking process. This approach deviated from traditional documentary practices by shifting the power dynamic, where participants were not merely subjects but co-creators. From the outset to the final stages, they were involved in key decisions, including shooting, editing, and distribution planning, ensuring their voices shaped the entire project.

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The subject of participant power and ethics in documentary film is one of my special interests. I have given talks and short courses on this theme in the UK at film schools and colleges, as well as in academic conferences in Brazil and Peru. In Peru, the two presentations I delivered – Documentary, Visual Anthropology, and Diversity in Education (2020) and Ethics in Documentary Practice (2023) – were subsequently published as book chapters. Furthermore, I am fluent in Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, and conversational in German, which has allowed me to effectively engage with diverse audiences in a variety of international contexts.

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I became a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol for the last six months of the MMPPF project. We collaborated with small island fishing communities on Lake Volta who’ve been accused of child-trafficking and modern slavery, and subjected to rescue missions that at times involved forcibly taking away their children. The documentaries provide a counter to this narrative and call for a rights-based collaborative approach between islanders, NGOs and authorities.

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The MMPPF Ghana films were co-produced with my colleagues in Sierra Leone, Apex Multimedia Cooperative. I’ve worked with Apex on multiple projects. We have made two video reports for Deutsche Welle Germany: Strengthening Land Rights (12.30’) and Help for Hawa: Diabetes in Sierra Leone (12.30’). Help for Hawa was made in partnership with Help Madina charity and was also screened in rural parts of the country that have no electricity. Large parts of the country still have no access to diabetes treatment and are unaware of the condition, so, together with Help Madina, we are developing an information drama about diabetes, Sugar Medicine.

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One ongoing issue in Sierra Leone that we’ve been documenting is the exploitation of the country’s natural resources. Strengthening Land Rights (DW) is one of several short films that emerged from our collaboration with the local legal empowerment organisation, Namati. Thanks to a grant from the Sundance Institute and the Skoll Foundation’s Stories of Change, I began working with Met Film and director Jerry Rothwell to explore issues surrounding land rights and access to legal resources. As part of this project, we produced two additional documentaries: Beside the Water (11’) for Namati’s People Rising series, and Lifting the Curse (11’).

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In 2024, I co-produced The Sun Does Shine with Abigail Morris and Apex Multimedia. This radio documentary tells the incredible story of Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Featuring music from Vox Holloway Choir, the documentary first aired on National Prison Radio before being picked up by BBC Radio 4, where it was honoured as Pick of the Week.

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Throughout my career, my filmmaking has been driven by a deep commitment to understanding and amplifying the voices of marginalised communities around the world. From the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the favelas of Brazil, Sierra Leone, and human rights struggles in Ghana, I strive to foster understanding and inspire meaningful change. By building enduring relationships with the communities featured in my films, I aim to challenge dominant narratives and advocate for social justice. Through collaboration with researchers, activists, and filmmakers worldwide, I remain dedicated to using film as a powerful tool for advocacy, education, and empowerment.