“Sorious was a godsend… He was a friend, a consultant, an authority. He was the soul of the production.”

A self-described “perpetual student,” Zwick immersed himself in learning all he could about the history and repercussions of conflict diamonds, child soldiers and the revolution in Sierra Leone before exposing a single frame of film. An internet search led to a connection with another filmmaker who would prove invaluable to every facet of “Blood Diamond”: award-winning documentarian Sorious Samura.

“I went online to look up a documentary I had heard about called ‘Cry Freetown,’” Zwick recalls. “I put in a credit card order for it, and a week later a letter arrived saying, ‘We couldn’t help but recognize the name on your card and wondered if you were thinking of doing something about Sierra Leone. If so, please feel free to call me.’ I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Sorious Samura’s documentary about Sierra Leone is the single most authoritative record of what happened there during the civil war. While many journalists were fleeing the country and much of the world chose to ignore what was happening, here was someone who stayed and actually filmed it.”

Samura reveals that his decision to film the atrocities unfolding around him in 1999 was less an artistic decision than “a desperate cry in the dark for us to be saved. I had seen the difference the media made in covering the war in Kosovo, so I decided to take a camera and film what was happening in Sierra Leone. It was very dangerous—they had already killed about nine local journalists—but I thought if I could survive, then the world would see; if I could give the international community a wake-up call, maybe they would take action.”

The result was “Cry Freetown,” which brought Samura worldwide recognition and several prestigious awards, but he could not imagine that, years later, it would bring him to the set of a major motion picture. He relates, “When I learned that Ed Zwick was working on a feature film about Sierra Leone, I wanted to make sure he got the details right. Even though it was going to be a drama with fictional characters, it was important to convey a sense of what really went wrong—when it happened, how it happened, and why. When I talked to Ed, I could see he was as committed to getting it right as I was. I gained great respect for him, and told him I wanted to be a part of the film.”

“Sorious was a godsend. He made himself available to me, and I took full advantage of that,” Zwick says appreciatively. “You cannot put a value on having someone who was actually there. He became much more than a technical advisor. He didn’t just advise us on practical things like wardrobe and props. He led us to people who understood the Mende language, Krio dialect, and so many nuances of Sierra Leonean culture. He had spent time with child soldiers, smugglers and mercenaries. He was indispensable to the actors, especially Leo and Djimon. He was a friend, a consultant, an authority. He was the soul of the production.” beginning of every shooting day. It read: ‘The child is the jewel.’”