Documentary Title: God loves Uganda
Director: Roger Ross Williams
Writers: Benjamin Gray, Richard Hankin, Roger Ross Williams
Duration: 1hr 23mins
In Uganda, the “Pearl of Africa,” American missionaries have been credited with building schools and hospitals but also held accountable for encouraging harmful religious bigotry. The documentary – God Loves Uganda explains the role of the American evangelical movement in Uganda.
Uganda is a prime location for American evangelicals to spread their version of the Bible. As the missionaries’ beliefs against homosexuality become ingrained in a culture of intolerance and hostility towards Uganda’s LGBT community, their evangelization may have more harmful effects than they are aware of.
The film, which was produced and directed by Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams, whose sister, is a preacher and whose father was a religious figure, documents the tight environment of terror brought on when a virulently anti-gay measure receives broad support.
This film gives American religious leaders and their young missionaries who constitute the “front lines in a struggle for billions of souls” the opportunity to defend their viewpoints in their own words using vérité-style camerawork, interviews, and hidden camera video.
This includes Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, an activist for peace and reconciliation in Uganda who was excommunicated, shunned, and practically spat on for being tolerant, as well as Lou Engle, the originator of The Call, which gathers tens of thousands of believers in “solemn assemblies.”
