Adama, the story of a young Muslim girl being held as a potential suicide bomber, will air on the Arkansas Educational Television Networks (AETN) third digital channel, AETN Plus, Sunday, Nov. 6, at 1 and 8 p.m.
On March 24, 2005, Adama Bah, a 16-year-old Muslim girl, awoke at dawn to discover nearly a dozen armed government agents inside her familys apartment in East Harlem. She was arrested and taken to a maximum-security juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania. An FBI document leaked to the press mysteriously identified Adama as a potential suicide bomber and an imminent threat to the security of the United States.
After six weeks of public protest and media scrutiny, Adama was released with an ankle bracelet and a deportation order but no terrorist charges. Still traumatized by the experience of her detention, Adama had to drop out of high school and support her four younger siblings when her father was deported to Guinea, Africa.
Using intimate verité footage, Adama captures the extreme pressures bearing down on this young Muslim girl and her desperate efforts to keep her family from unraveling.
The film is directed by David Felix Sutcliffe, an emerging filmmaker, multimedia artist and youth media educator. He has been honored with a National Scholastic Art and Writing award for his work as a media educator with the Harlem Childrens Zone and has received artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and the Independent Television Service (ITVS). He is currently working as a teaching artist with the Tribeca Film Institute. Adama is his first full-length film. Producer Su Kim is a documentary producer based in New York City. Most recently she co-produced Kimjongilia (directed by NC Heikin), which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and Adama, an ITVS Open Call-funded documentary. Kim was awarded a CPB/PBS Producers Workshop scholarship and participated in the 2008 Sundance Institute's Independent Producers Conference.
AETN Plus (AETN-3) is available to watch over the air using an antenna hooked up to a converter box or a digital television. However, it is at the discretion of cable and satellite companies whether they make these channels available to their subscribers. A complete list of service providers currently carrying AETN Plus/World is available at www.aetn.org/about/channelinformation.
The Independent Television Service (ITVS) funds and presents award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on PBS. ITVS is a miracle of public policy created by media activists, citizens and politicians seeking to foster plurality and diversity in public television. ITVS was established by a historic mandate of Congress to champion independently produced programs that take creative risks, spark public dialogue and serve underserved audiences. Since its inception in 1991, ITVS programs have revitalized the relationship between the public and public television, bringing television audiences face-to-face with the lives and concerns of their fellow Americans. For more information about ITVS, visit www.itvs.org. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
The Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) is Arkansass statewide public television network that enhances lives by providing lifelong learning opportunities for people from all walks of life. AETN delivers local, award-winning productions and classic, trusted PBS programs aimed at sharing Arkansas and the world with viewers. AETN depends on the generosity of Arkansans and the State of Arkansas to continue offering quality programming. For more information, visit www.aetn.org, or follow the AETN blog at www.aetn.org/engage. AETN is broadcast on KETS (Little Rock), KEMV (Mountain View), KETG (Arkadelphia), KAFT (Fayetteville), KTEJ (Jonesboro), and KETZ (El Dorado).
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