The Thing About Liberia '77.....

Great news! They have rice and sauce in Liberia too! After weeks of roughing it with extreme humidity, no running water, and one hour of electricity per day, at best, we fall into the lap of luxury in, of all places, Liberia. A huge day of travel crossing the border from Sierra Leone and we are spat out in front of the ‘Liberia ‘77’ team pad. Dusting ourselves off, we climb the steps into a beautiful house with hardwood floors, a fridge, couches, real kitchen, running water, and two cats. Purrfect.

The crack ‘Liberia ‘77’ filmmaking team consists of director Jeff Topham, brother Topham and still photographer, Andrew, and Evan’s mom, Melanie, the producer. Their Liberian driver Mickey Watkins adds zany comedic antics to the proceedings. The documentary tells the story of Jeff and Andrew, as they return to the country where they spent a portion of their childhood, roaming the jungle, suckling mangoes, and hanging out with their pet chimpanzee Evelyn. Having left prior to the 1980 coup that marked the beginning of the country’s descent into chaos, the return journey of the Topham brothers has dredged up memories, exposed interesting questions about the long-term obligations of foreigners in colonized lands, and illuminated surprisingly little contrast between the Liberia of today and that of 40 years ago. A lot has happened here but war has frozen progress in the ‘70’s - pictures taken today are unnervingly similar to those from the Topham archive.

Needless to say, our filmmaking skills were immediately invaluable to the project. Tasks included cold Club Beer re-stocking, hang out DJ playlist making, gourmet meal preparation, cat petting, and general enthusiasm and positive attitude dispensing. With our presence, it is clear that productivity increased threefold - one fold for each of us. Even aided by our expertise, filmmaking is exhausting work and after a couple of days, we all needed a break. To the coastal town of Robertsport for some surfing and more serious relaxing! Others hung ten in the barrel, building shacks in the rip curl while we were tossed around in the waves, trying not to get hit by the actual surfers.

The thing about ‘Liberia ’77’ is it’s shaping up to be a doozy and we were glad to be there to hang. Check out the website for breaking news and updates.
www.liberia77.com