Andrew Berends, filmmaker of the SXSW 2007 documentary When Adnan Comes Home as well as the acclaimed The Blood of My Brother, has been arrested and detained in Nigeria, where he is making his new film. An announcement about the situation shares: "Andrew was held in custody without food, sleep, or representation, and with limited water for 36 hours. He was questioned by the army, the police, and the State Security Services in Port Harcourt. He was then temporarily released, with an order to return to the SSS office at 9AM Tuesday morning. The State Security Services has confiscated his passport and personal property. Andrew's translator, Samuel George, remained in custody over night." Here's more from Thom Powers, at the TIFF Doc Blog, as news comes to light.

i wonder why he sould go their with out take pamsion from the sss that is a country of her own is not his country becos i dont think a nigerian or nor usa will do such in usa with going to the sss so if the nigeria sss says his a spy will is good 4him he wanna maketo the people of nigeria now their will make joke of him

Totally unexpected, but also foolhardy. I give my best to Andrew, but I would have suggested covering your trip somehow. Let more people know what the hell you're doing.

zack and miri > zack and - Great article! I think that your topic was interesting, and your views are genuine. I'm going to share your blog with my community. (10/10/08)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Name
Email
URL
Comments

Remember personal info?