Madison and her siblings grew up in Harlem with a single mother, Nell Vera Lowe, who had very limited financial resources. Lowe was born in Jamaica to a black mother and a Chinese father, Samuel Lowe.
At three years old, Nell Vera Lowe's mother took her away from her father, and so Madison's mother never had a relationship with Madison's grandfather. After Madison's mother passed away in 2006, Madison decided to find her Chinese relatives, living and dead.
Madison today is a long way from living on public assistance in Harlem. She and her family are the majority stakeholders in the Africa Channel, and at one time, they owned the WNBA's LA Sparks. Madison is also NBC's former Chief Diversity Officer.
Upon retirement from NBC, Madison was able to devote her time and resources to the intense genealogical search that the film documents. In the documentary, which was screened to a full house at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City in July, Madison is seen traveling to her ancestors' homes and places of business in Jamaica. Eventually, she also travels to China to meet relatives who did not know that she or her mother ever existed.