Documentary recs?

[BamaBelle]

14 hours ago, downtherabbithole said:

I know of a couple who went here. It is where they had met and the stories are horrifying!

If you want a rabbit hole to go down (pun unintended) try nhym-alumni.org.  TRIGGER WARNING for abuse (sexual, physical, psychological and emotional).  

[Yogi]

I'm watching Kidnapped For Christ on youtube just now and wow.

I've seen this 'sort' of thing before but not like this. I remember Channel 4 (uk) used to have a reality tv show where they sent kids to a camp in America, don't think it was religious but it scared me I recently found out a boy died there, so maybe I wasn't crept out for nothing.

I also remember a fictional movie that based on a true story about a girl sent to a camp like this abroad, but it descended into horror movie territory with the kids being left for dead I think.

I am also watching it right now! Pretty horrifying. Given my decidedly non-religious upbringing, this sort of thing is just totally foreign to me. I cannot wrap my mind around it. I'm really curious about the staff members. They seem quite young maybe late teens early 20s. I would like to know what their story is and possibly how they might feel if they get some distance from the school.

[Yogi]

It's a little sad at the end to hear Beth clearly display some Stockholm syndrome toward the place.

[brokenminded]

I went onto that website and read every q&a with the past students and just, I have no words.

Most of the young staff seemed to act they way prefects did in Victorian boarding schools where they were allowed to punish the younger boys as they felt fit. They were on power trips in an institution that encouraged them to act that way.

I too was very upset by what Beth said at the end of the documentary. I hope she got some real treatment for her mental illnesses because panic attacks aren't something you do for fun or rebellion no matter how many times a twisted adult trys to tell you otherwise.

I would like to hear from parents who choose this for their kids, did they know were they tricked, why no lawsuits against the place when girls were sexually assaulted. Do these 'parents' still think they did the right thing?

I am glad the place seems to have closed down but there are thousand of other camps/schools like this in existence and that is terrifying.

I was rather upset when they showed all the red dots of where camps are that one showed up in the UK. I hope given laws here that children in that place are not beaten and abused, they should be given more legal protection than in some places, but the camps in Canada run by the place in the film were apparently just as bad, so who knows. I am just disgusted this happens.

I also couldn't figure out how, even if you went along with their shit and did everything they wanted you were ever allowed to leave. Was there a way to leave other than your parents demanding you back or running out of money?

One girl on the website mentioned her mother paying $40,000 for this place. That's serious money that many people could only dram of having to spend on anything let alone abusing their children.

[louisa05]

I watched "Give Me Sex, Jesus" this week. 
 

I don't even know what to say. Did anyone else who has seen it want to slap that smug guy with the wife with the baby voice? I believe there names were Patrick and Bonnie. They were the married couple who waited to kiss and what not but he had dated normally prior to meeting her. When I really lost it with him was when he got all sad about how he had dated women prior to his wife and kissed them and apparently done a bit more as well. He was all guilty that doing all that with them is still with them and how they can never forget it apparently since he didn't marry them. I just wanted to slap him through my computer screen and say "just how important and special do you think you are that you would be so unforgettable". I never saw that whole "pieces of your heart" thing as so arrogant until then. Stupid, but not arrogant. But it really is a pretty arrogant mindset as well--everyone you ever hold hands with will be so profoundly attached to you that they will never get over you. Okay, then. 

[downtherabbithole]

On April 8, 2016 at 1:39 PM, BamaBelle said:

If you want a rabbit hole to go down (pun unintended) try nhym-alumni.org.  TRIGGER WARNING for abuse (sexual, physical, psychological and emotional).  

That is actually the place I was talking about. The person I know was planning on writing a book, but there was too much red tape and she decided to put it on hold when she had her child. 

She was taken in the middle of the night right out of her bed! She was sent to Escuela Caribe. 

[Casserole]

Kind of off topic to documentaries, but similar to Escuela Caribe... My first roommate was sent to the Family Foundation School in upstate NY (now shut down, thankfully.) She said she was awoken in the middle of the night in her family home by two large men, who wrapped her in a blanket that they then wrapped duct tape around to restrain her and she was taken. She spent three years at this "school" for teens with "addictions" and "mental problems." I believe the school was Catholic. The stories she would tell me of the abuse were INSANE. I get chills just thinking about it. The school had it's own pack of Newfoundland dogs to hunt for the brave souls who tried to runaway. And yet, while the investigation and court case was ongoing, she was adamant that it wasn't abuse and those people saved her. She'd watch videos of the testimonies and yell at the screen that it wasn't abuse. Meanwhile, I'd be near tears listening to the people on trial bearing their souls and sharing their abuse. She wanted to become a counselor and return to the school to "help" other kids like they helped her. It was at that moment I understood Stockholm Syndrome. 

So scary. 

http://www.thefamilyschooltruth.com/Home.html

[iheartchacos]

Just watched Kidnapped. Wow...just wow. I, too, want to hear from the parents. That website has stories from kids sent there in the 70's!

[Yogi]

So I'm on a roll thanks to this thread. Watched God Loves Uganda last night. So sad. Those bright eyed college 'missionaries' who go and accomplish absolutely no purpose are the best case, the horrible evil anti gay legislation is the worst case. At the funeral the person sobbing saying 'they could just start killing us at any time' just broke my heart.

As an aside, I have a friend living in Zambia for a few years and I really want to ask and see if he's come across John Schrader! I kind of doubt it as my friend is living on a government compound or something, but I just wonder how widely Schraders presence is known among Americans there.

[Wizard of Quivers]

Jesus Camp is probably one of my favorites. Another good one by the same director is 12th and Delaware, it's follows  a pregnancy crisis center, an abortion clinic the street, and their respective patients. 

Proposition 8: the Mormon Proposition, also worthy of a watch.

Inside a Cult I remember seeing on Natgeo some years back concerning Wayne Bent/MichaelTrevesser and the Strong City cult. 

[louisa05]

On 4/10/2016 at 7:06 PM, Casserole said:

Kind of off topic to documentaries, but similar to Escuela Caribe... My first roommate was sent to the Family Foundation School in upstate NY (now shut down, thankfully.) She said she was awoken in the middle of the night in her family home by two large men, who wrapped her in a blanket that they then wrapped duct tape around to restrain her and she was taken. She spent three years at this "school" for teens with "addictions" and "mental problems." I believe the school was Catholic. The stories she would tell me of the abuse were INSANE. I get chills just thinking about it. The school had it's own pack of Newfoundland dogs to hunt for the brave souls who tried to runaway. And yet, while the investigation and court case was ongoing, she was adamant that it wasn't abuse and those people saved her. She'd watch videos of the testimonies and yell at the screen that it wasn't abuse. Meanwhile, I'd be near tears listening to the people on trial bearing their souls and sharing their abuse. She wanted to become a counselor and return to the school to "help" other kids like they helped her. It was at that moment I understood Stockholm Syndrome. 

So scary. 

http://www.thefamilyschooltruth.com/Home.html

The wikipedia page for this "school" (a loose term here, it appears) lists it as "private" with a religious affiliation of "inter-faith". Nothing I could find online shows any affiliation whatsoever with any Catholic parish or diocese. 

As an alum of Catholic schools and having taught in Catholic schools, I can assure you that no such lack of oversight or lack of certified or credentialed staff would be allowed to continue in a Catholic school or treatment center of any kind. 

[Cleopatra7]

"Jonestown: Life and Death of People's Temple" is a great documentary if you want to understand why so many people joined People's Temple and why they were motivated to move to Jonestown. Unlike most documentaries on Jonestown/People's Temple, this one is told entirely in the words of former members and people intimately connected to the community with no exposition from a narrator or re-enactments. The downside of this is that if you don't already have some knowledge of the subject, it can be a bit confusing, but if you've seen some of the other documentaries on Jonestown, it shouldn't be a problem. I really like how this movie ends by telling the viewer how many relatives each of the interviewees lost at Jonestown, because it drives home that the victims weren't just "brainwashed cultists" or nameless, faceless bodies rotting in the jungle, but had families and friends who were (and continue to be) deeply impacted by their deaths. "Jonestown: Life and Death of People's Temple" is available in its entirety on Youtube. 

[Casserole]

33 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

The wikipedia page for this "school" (a loose term here, it appears) lists it as "private" with a religious affiliation of "inter-faith". Nothing I could find online shows any affiliation whatsoever with any Catholic parish or diocese. 

As an alum of Catholic schools and having taught in Catholic schools, I can assure you that no such lack of oversight or lack of certified or credentialed staff would be allowed to continue in a Catholic school or treatment center of any kind. 

 

She was my roommate at a private Catholic college that the school selected for her. They had her shipped straight from FFS to college to keep her "in line." That just led me to believe the school had some Catholic ties, I guess. 

[Angelic83]

I don't think it has been mentioned here but on youtube I watched a serie about a christian cult group in New Zealand called gloriaville. Another rabbit hole to fall down. I think they made 2 documentaries about that group. They are a bit of a mix of the normal fundie christian but with shunning if you leave the group.

[Cleopatra7]

On 5/21/2016 at 4:45 PM, Angelic83 said:

I don't think it has been mentioned here but on youtube I watched a serie about a christian cult group in New Zealand called gloriaville. Another rabbit hole to fall down. I think they made 2 documentaries about that group. They are a bit of a mix of the normal fundie christian but with shunning if you leave the group.

I've seen that. The group lives on a compound and produces stuff, which definitely isn't like our fundies who would balk at anything that smacks of "communism." The group leader has been accused of sexual abuse (including by one of his sons) and I think he did some time, though when he got out he went right back to being the leader of the group. Le sigh.

[Angelic83]

On 23-5-2016 at 3:09 PM, Cleopatra7 said:

I've seen that. The group lives on a compound and produces stuff, which definitely isn't like our fundies who would balk at anything that smacks of "communism." The group leader has been accused of sexual abuse (including by one of his sons) and I think he did some time, though when he got out he went right back to being the leader of the group. Le sigh.

The leaders and sexual abuse seams something that is going around in fundieland....

[ALM7]

@Yogi, I just ran across another documentary by Alexandra Pelosi.  Meet the Donors - Does Money Talk  {2016}.  It's interesting!