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Original Film Title: Forgotten Children Sing
Director’s Name: Mark Lee Hegarty
Writer’s Name: Mark Lee Hegarty
Producer: Mark Lee Hegarty
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Country of Filming: Liberia, United Kingdom, United States
Language: English
Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes 25 seconds
Film Description:
Forgotten Children Sing is a documentary following the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, children living in extreme poverty in post–civil war Liberia, West Africa, who film and narrate their own story, offering a rare, intimate view of life through their eyes.
Their journey takes an unexpected turn when, after a cancelled flight en route to the United States, the children meet Grammy-nominated jazz composer Amina Figarova. A chance conversation becomes an unlikely collaboration, leading the choir to perform Figarova’s Suite for Africa alongside newly arranged Liberian songs.
What follows is an extraordinary journey across the U.S. jazz circuit, including performances at major festivals, among them the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where the choir become the first artists from Liberia to appear on these stages.
Filmed largely by the children themselves, Forgotten Children Sing challenges perceptions of children living in poverty, centring agency, joy and cultural pride. At its heart, the film is a love letter to Liberia, the country the children call home, and an invitation to see both its people and its possibilities differently.