Silas

Liberian activist Silas Siakor exposed rampant corruption involving the former Liberian President Charles Taylor and the natural resources industry, which led to the war criminal’s ouster in 2003. Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state Ellen Johnson Sirleaf promises things will be different under her leadership, but Siakor soon suspects the logging companies and the government are continuing to profit by exploiting the nearby villages. Using an app called This Is My Back Yard, or TIMBY, Siakor and his small army of activists document and report with their cellphones illegal permits, forged signatures and a web of collusion, nepotism and misspending of $10 million in Ebola aid. Silas is a portrait of a man dedicated to solving Liberia’s systemic political problems by first protecting the county’s forests and the one million people who live in them.