“GOD LOVES UGANDA” My rating: B (Opens Nov. 15 at the Tivoli)
83 minutes | No MPAA rating
At first glance, Roger Ross Williams’ documentary “God Loves Uganda” seems to be a study of a group of young people from the Kansas City area who go to Uganda as missionaries.
They are obviously sincere and highly motivated Christians, full of youthful enthusiasm and convinced that in their faith they have found the answer to…well, everything.
But little by little “God Loves Uganda” tells a dramatically different story, one about conservative Christians who have gained so much influence in a foreign country that their anti-gay bias is being institutionalized in laws that would make homosexuality a crime – even a capital crime.
It takes a while for the film to make its case. Early on we meet the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian priest now living in Boston. We see him making breakfast for his family.
Why are we spending time with this guy? Well, it is gradually revealed that Kaoma was a gay-rights researcher who fled Uganda in fear of his life. He believes that American Christian missionaries, no matter how sincere, are responsible for a culture of hate and fear in that country.
Most of the Christians featured in the film are members of the International House of Prayer, which has headquarters in Grandview, Mo., on Kansas City’s south side.
Williams – an Oscar winner for his documentary short “Music by Prudence “– seems to have been given unlimited access , filming worship services and training sessions as the fresh-scrubbed young proselytizers get ready. He then follows them on their mission abroad.
Less likeable are several fire-and-brimstone conservative American preachers who are hugely influential in Uganda. The most objectionable of this bunch may be Scott Lively, an anti-gay activist credited by many with using outright falsehoods (homosexuals were behind the Nazi movement) to whip up an anti-homosexual feeding frenzy.
The resulting documentary is depressing and scary. These fundamentalist Americans see Africa as fertile ground for anti-gay pogroms, without having to deal with the civil rights issues their approach would raise in the U.S.
“God Loves Uganda” has been criticized as being anti-Christian. Actually, it’s anti-Christian bigot. There’s a difference, isn’t there?
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 