Private Project

Unbowed

Omar Bah was a young journalist when he had to flee The Gambia under threat of death from the regime’s President, because of his reporting. He is eventually resettled as a refugee in Rhode Island. When the same President is deposed years later, Omar is finally able to end his exile and claim much longed-for closure to this traumatic part of his life. As he prepares for his first return journey to The Gambia since exiled over a decade ago, the film reveals the remarkable person Omar has become in America.

  • David Helfer Wells
    Director
    Trap Fishing, Quahoggers: Rhode Island’s iconic shellfishermen
  • Mae Gammino
    Director
    Being Thunder
  • Mae Gammino
    Producer
    Being Thunder
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Refugees, Immgrants, Actvist
  • Runtime:
    24 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    DSLR Video
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No

  • United States
Director Biography - David Helfer Wells, Mae Gammino

Mae is a photojournalist, documentary filmmaker, and producer, and a member of the National Press Photographers Association. She creates still images and videos for corporate clients, film festivals, and media companies. Her still photos have been in publications including The Boston Globe, The Hollywood Reporter, and IndieWire. She has worked in visuals production at the Sundance Film Festival and is the Staff photographer for the Provincetown International Film Festival. She has documented humanitarian aid work for NGOs and NPOs, and was a recipient of the National Press Photographers Association Northern Short Course Scholarship in 2014. She produced the feature-length documentary film BEING THUNDER. It is an international co-production with Magneto (France) and In Association with ARTE (France). Film Movement acquired North American rights in 2022. It is now available on Prime Video, Apple TV, Apple TV Canada, iTunes, and VUDU. Mae earned her B.A. in Finance from Simmons University in Boston. She lives in Rhode Island with her spouse, Susan.

David Helfer Wells, director, cinematographer, and sound recordist: David brings three decades of experience making still images and, more recently, narrative films for publications and websites. Wells is a Senior Fellow of the Coastal Institute of the University of Rhode Island. His imagery has appeared in magazines including Fortune, Life, National Geographic, Newsweek, The Sunday New York Times, and Time. He has received funding for past projects from the MacArthur Foundation's Program of Research and Writing on International Peace and Cooperation, the Fulbright Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation. The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine nominated his work on the pesticide poisoning of California farm workers for a Pulitzer Prize. Many of his short films have been juried into film festivals around the globe, including Ankara, Bangalore, Jaipur, Lahore, Lisbon, Mumbai, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Rome, Sacramento, and San Francisco. David lives in Rhode Island with his wife, Annu.

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Director Statement

David and I are drawn to telling singular stories that make the complexity of situations and global issues visible. It was at the beginning of Trump's first Presidency when we met Omar at a Refugee conference where he was a panelist. Soon after the meeting, we visited him and his wife at their fledgling organization, The Refugee Dream Center (RDC). We discussed our desire to tell the story of Omar's emerging leadership role.

We began filming about a year after Omar founded The RDC. As we traveled with him, our rapport grew organically, allowing us to discover a person with an unwavering commitment to his community. He opened his home and the inner workings of the RDC to us. Beyond his professional persona, we were at his side when he was challenged once again to overcome intrusive events that jeopardized the stability of his world. The film is primarily observational and eschews sit-down interviews. Instead, we engage with Omar while he is on the go, which accurately presents how he lives. He is rarely still - always in motion, doing, advancing, and planning. We spent hours with him, rushing around Providence in the family minivan and at his home, as he tended to various problems that fellow refugees expected him to solve. We experience him completely, breaking free of the public persona. And while the reason for his exile is essential, we intentionally limit in-depth coverage of The Gambia and its former regime, using just enough archival broadcast footage to establish the context for the conditions that necessitated Omar's escape.

Over the years, we revisited Omar when he achieved a long-held goal set years earlier: running for a U.S. Congressional seat (in a newer minivan!). We then catch up again, after Trump takes office for a second time, when Omar's fears and concerns from Trump's first Presidency become reality on Inauguration Day. 
Undeterred, Omar remains steady, determined, and always dedicated to actions that advance the community he leads and protects.