Blessed Child

In the summer of 1995, at 20 years old, filmmaker Cara Jones stood in the Seoul Olympic Stadium clenching the hand of a man she had met just a month before and was about to marry. She was among ten thousand brides and grooms, all in uniform black suits and matching white wedding dresses. Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial leader of the Unification Church she was raised in, arranged the marriage using 8×10 photographs. Cara grew up in one of the most well-known American families in the Church. Commonly known as The Moonies, the Unification Church made headlines for these arranged marriages and mass weddings. Utilizing both never before seen footage from within the church and extraordinary home videos of her family’s upbringing alongside Reverend Moon and his disciples, BLESSED CHILD is one daughter’s attempt to unpack the legacy of the decisions her parents made while challenging assumptions – hers and ours – about cults and family.