Australian Premiere

LIBERIA ‘77

Sat 13th August | 6:30pm | Dendy Opera Quays

Dir: Jeff Topham, Canada, 2011, 75 min

This poignant documentary illustrates how photography can unite us across time, distance, culture, even war.

For Jeff and his brother Andrew, 70s Liberia was a childhood paradise of endless beaches, thick jungle – even a pet chimp. Their expat father’s photographs document not only their African experience, but unknowingly, a country and a people on the brink of civil war. 30 years later, the brothers – now photographers themselves - return to Liberia to re-shoot their childhood paradise…

What begins as a moving personal journey quickly evolves as the filmmakers come face to face with the expectations of the people they left behind when the family moved back to Canada. Navigating the intersection between the personal and the political, Liberia ’77 asks captivating questions about Western impact on Africa, and our responsibility as expatriates, as journalists, as witnesses and as humans.