Winstina Taylor – the first Sierra Leonean filmmaker with 4 movies on Amazon Prime

Freetown | 2nd October 2022 | Vertex Media

Coming from a country where the film industry has faced setbacks, and couldn’t compete with foreign movies, a Sierra Leonean female filmmaker (producer) based in the United States Winstina Taylor is breaking the barriers in the global film industry by having four (4) of her films on the global streaming platform, Amazon Prime.

The African cinema is largely dominated by films from the Nollywood, almost every Sierra Leonean household has a copy of Nollywood movies, but the same cannot be said about Sierra Leonean movies that struggle to get breakthrough at home before going beyond borders. In fact, getting Sierra Leonean movies on major streaming platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix, was very unrealistic. But as fate would have it, a Sierra Leonean female filmmaker has broken the deadlock by having her movies on Amazon Prime.

The award winning producer, actress and entrepreneur (CEO of Prime International Production) – Winstina Taylor led Sierra Leonean filmmakers in marketing Sierra Leonean movies to a global audience.

Winstina now has four movies on Amazon Prime, namely, ‘Game On’ & ‘Side Chick Chronicles’ – written and directed by Sierra Leonean Director and Screenwriter Lansana Spartar, and ‘Scarlet’ & ‘Nurses From Hell’ written by another Sierra Leonean Screenwriter Ishmael Kanu.

Winstina reflects on her journey thus far – after hitting Amazon Prime –

“My WCW for today is me, myself and I. I found that ultimately if you truly pour your heart into what you believe in — even if it makes you vulnerable — amazing things can and will happen. Through God all things are possible”🙏🏻

“I – as in Winstina Taylor – CEO of Prime International Productions – have four films available on an international platform Amazon Prime Video, making me the first and ONLY producer and actress from Sierra Leone to do so at this time. I did say four movies. I’m also proud to say that all four of these films were written by natives of Sierra Leone.”
~ Winstina Taylor wrote on Facebook

She also looks forward to submitting another movie (‘ColorFool‘) to the streaming platform, while urging Sierra Leoneans to continue to stream her movies on the platform.

By Ibrahim Sorious Samura