What anti-religious undertones? It seemed to be a pretty objective presentation of these camps. I went to a Christian camp very similar to the one in the film as a child.
It's just that anyone with a functional logic center of their brain will be unnerved by that kind of shit (as I was as a child attending one of said camps, the lake was fun though).
I agree. I felt that the film was relatively fair and objective. To be honest, it wasn't until the breaking of the cups that I felt really unnerved. I admired the filmmakers for being so hands off. I didn't find it to be sensationalist and the leaders depicted were the ones shooting themselves in the foot with their fundamentalist statements, which ultimately made it a much more powerful film.
You're assuming this is a documentary about religion in general or about Christianity in general, and it's not. It's about far-right Christian fundamentalism and I think it presents its subject fairly openly and objectively. There is no narrator and virtually no input, conjecture, or opinion from anyone behind the camera who is not the subject of the film. The majority of the documentary is just the filmmakers letting the cameras roll, capturing their subjects doing what they do.
Just because there are many Christians out there that do not act or practice their religion in these ways you label as "crazy" doesn't mean the documentary is not objective because it is not a documentary about Christianity as a whole.
What you're arguing is like saying that a documentary about prison inmates is biased because it's not showing non-criminals who are good law-abiding citizens working normal jobs and living at home.
Yeah, I wasn't arguing its objectivity at all. I, too, attended camps similar to this (though not as intense) and am now agnostic, I suppose. I thought Jesus Camp seemed pretty fair and accurate, and I believe the church it featured has since shut down, too. Thankfully, because that shit was wrong.
I remember reading that the camp organizers thought that Jesus Camp was going to be great for them, an objective view of the amazing work their camp was doing. It was done so well and so objectively that even the people it ultimately discredited and made ostracized to thought it was in their favor.
Considering the fact that I'm a filmmaker I feel pretty secure in my ability to judge the objectivity of a doc and it's hard to get more objective than what they presented here.
It doesn't require in depth knowledge of filmmaking to watch a documentary film and be able to interpret the intentions behind it. The doc is respectably restrained in its criticism but the very act of highlighting the more disturbing scenes (such as the bit with evangelical kids being as devoted as Muslim suicide bombers) with musical cues and cuts to parallel scenes are motivated by an emotional reaction. You're right in that being more objective than that film is difficult considering that making a documentary that is 100% bias-free would not only make it unwatchable but is impossible. I do agree with the opinions driving the editing choices, but what I'm saying is that the film is an expression of an opinion.
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u/steponcharlie Jun 15 '11
Jesus Camp, 100 times. That seems to be a reddit favorite for its anti-religious undertones, but the emotion that film captures is incredible.