THE FILM
A group of Liberian social workers headed by Preston Jackson are looking for a rich church in the USA to collaborate on social projects. Instead, they find a poor radical Black church from Detroit known as the Shrine of the Black Madonna. When members of the Shrine arrive in Monrovia to establish their missionary work, they also bring on board an entrepreneur, Anthony Kojo Darden. Kojo makes many promises to Preston and his co-workers which end up unfulfilled.
Filmed over the course of four years in a bankrupt Detroit and a war-torn Liberia struggling to reinvent themselves, Swedish director Mats Hjelm (Black Nation, 2008) follows the crossing paths of Liberian social worker Preston Jackson and African-American entrepreneur Anthony Kojo Darden as they try to help rebuild a new Liberia, each in their own way.
Produced by Herrlander Pictures, Kojo’s and Preston’s personal journeys in Africa are interspersed with the history of Black America, the Civil Rights movement and the history of Liberia as a symbol for Black freedom. Whilst being the site of one of the bloodiest civil wars in recent history, Liberia is now heavily dependent on foreign aid to get back on its feet. Will Kojo be able to make a difference there? Will Preston be able to create the social change he needs with no foreign aid?