Earthworks Films

MAN UP

Why would an unlikely band of American men travel to the depths of Ethiopia and Uganda, and join with African men? To launch a movement called “Man Up” and to go on an adventure of a lifetime. Their mission was simple: To love big on the least of these and to be fathers to the fatherless.

The Man Up and Go story began when Roger and his American family went to pick up their adopted daughter in Ethiopia only to find she was 6-months-old…but only 7 pounds: Zoie was deathly sick. Roger asked himself, “Is there a way out of this?”

He called his dad asking for support but heard words that would sink deep into his core: “Roger you need to man up! If Zoie dies in your arms tonight, at least she would die in the arms of a father.” Roger couldn’t get “man up” out of his head and knew he had to do something radical: to inspire men to be better role models, husbands and fathers. Man Up, the movement, was soon born.

This film follows the first rag tag Man Up team from the beginning, starting in the US. Off to Africa, they visited secret children’s prisons, orphanages, remote tribes, a dump that thousands call home and more. The men cooked, cleaned and gathered food.

They washed the feet of desperate women and shaved and fed lepers. Playing games and loving big on orphans, the men were fathers and mentors to thousands, even if for a day.

The Man Up and Go brothers literally did man up and go only to discover their own lives were impacted the most. In the end, the American team traveled back home to their comfortable lives…but will they ever be the same?