Hawanatu Bangura is a storyteller and an emerging filmmaker based in Sydney, Australia. She was born in Sierra Leone and at age 13 her family migrated to Australia due to the civil war in Sierra Leone. Hawanatu has has written and directed three short films ‘Alhaji’, ‘Not Good Enough’ and ‘Money Tree’ which is her recent film made through the Metro Screen First Break Program. Money Tree has been screened at both local and international film festival; it won best film at the Shortcut Film Festival. She has also worked on other short films such as ‘Never Give Up’, ‘Mariam is Late’, and ‘Something About Grace’ which won best use of props at the 48 Hours Film Project 2009. Hawanatu studied a double degree of Social Work and Social Science at the University of New South Wales. Her background in social work has sparked her interest to use film as a platform to provide a voice to the voiceless and bring attention to social issue affecting disadvantaged groups in society.
