Jesus Camp
by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
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DVD details
Actor: Becky Fischer, Mike Papantonio, Ted HaggardDirector: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Brand: MAGNOLIA FILMS
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Magnolia
Product features:
- Jesus Camp, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the critically acclaimed The Boys Of Baraka, follows Levi, Rachael, and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids On Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army". The film follows these children at camp as they hone their "prophetic
DVD Reviews of Jesus Camp
DVD Review: Scarry
Summary: 4 Stars
Scarry, but not as scarry as the muslim extremists. Read "While Europe Slept" by Bruce Bawer...I would love to know what you think?DVD Review: Children in the Hands of an Angry God
Summary: 5 Stars
At the risk of going overboard, I can say that Jesus Camp had more of an impact on me than almost any other film that I have watched. I saw it for the first time in 2007 and I watched it again last night. The film amazes and appalls in its depiction of the ways that the Christian Right indoctrinates its children.
Jesus Camp is about three children who attend the Kids on Fire camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, during summer 2005. The organizers of the camp inform the kids that they can change the world by spreading the evangelical message. The kids are also warned, however, that the Devil targets the young and that they are likely to burn in hell if they don't heed God's message. The camp's director particularly condemns children who watch and read Harry Potter because you "don't make heroes out of warlocks." The speeches lead a number of the kids to cry on camera.
The adults involved in Kids on Fire make no bones about indoctrinating their kids. One adult says, with no sense of irony, that the Palestinians do a much better job of indoctrinating their children. The same woman says "I don't feel any child gets anything by choice." An unforgettable scene involves the adults bringing in a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush and instructing the kids to pray for him. After the prayers, an anti-abortion activist comes in with some plastic fetuses that are supposed to show the size of a human fetus at different stages of development.
I felt for the children in the film. All of them are earnest and attempt to do the right thing. One thing that I have noticed about the evangelicals in my area is that they send their children out to proselytize and solicit funds, while the parents seldom engage in such activities.
The most striking aspect of the film, to me, is how little we hear about forgiveness and God's love for humanity; in my upbringing (in the Episcopal Church), these two points were the center of the Christian doctrine.
I highly recommend Jesus Camp to anyone interested in the role of religion in the U.S. Whatever your beliefs, you will be left with a lot of food for thought.
DVD Review: Important & Enlightening, A Very Good Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
This 2006 documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady which takes us to Kansas City, Missouri to meet Becky Fischer who runs an Evangelical church camp for young children caused quite a stir upon its release. This is a hard film to critique without personal and/or religious bias, but I'll try my best although I can tell you with no bias that this is a terrific documentary.
Becky Fischer is an evangelical pastor who founded the "Kids on Fire School of Ministry," located in Devil's Lake, North Dakota (and I'm the only one who finds this amusing apparently). Fischer says she wants America's youth to be as radical and dedicated to the Gospel as Muslim children are to Islam. Initially, I felt Fischer was a genuine, dedicated woman with extremely misguided views but as the film progresses she seems more like a middle-American version of Adolph Hitler. The documentary focuses on Fischer and three of the kids who attend her camp.
The town that makes up the film's setting is populated with Bush-loving; Evangelical Christians who believe Creationism is the only explanation for the world. Jesus Camp does not intend to be a definitive document of Evangelical Christianity, but rather these particular believers and how they indoctrinate their youth with their beliefs. One of the three kids who's given special attention in the film is Levi, a 12-year-old aspiring pastor whose mother makes some of the most infuriating, controversial comments in the film about her belief in Creationism and her disdain for the public school system.
Like almost everyone who watches it, I found Jesus Camp more disturbing than many horror films. What makes Jesus Camp disturbing is that these (rather extremist) beliefs are being force-fed to children this young and, while some may disagree, I thought the children in this film seemed like brainwashed zombies. Due to their young age, they can hardly be called "free-thinking individuals," but these are children who express very definite, concrete beliefs in their religion yet their thoughts sound robotic and scripted. The camp's cult-like, persuasive atmosphere which attempts to indoctrinate these children while they're still young and na?ve is a frightening thing by itself, but the image of young, prepubescent children chanting in tongues is more than just a little disturbing.
I don't see the actions of Becky Fischer and the parents as simply passing on their own religious beliefs to the children, as most people do that. What they're doing to the children in this film is mind-control and is completely inappropriate with the ages of these kid's factored in. Fischer is involved in a debate toward the end of the film with Mike Papantonio, a radio talk-show host where she explains that she doesn't believe that people can choose their belief system once they pass childhood. This is the statement that changed any opinions I had about Fischer, because that statement is a thinly veiled way of saying "they can't be manipulated into believing what I want them to believe after they pass childhood." While not everyone will agree with my opinion about Fischer's ministry indoctrinating children with their propaganda, few would argue my belief that it's inappropriate to preach about the evils of abortion to children this young.
It's essential for me to add that Ted Haggard's appearance in this film (prior to his controversy) adds a whole new undertone to the content of the movie. Now, the director's give a fair, even-handed view of Fischer's church but you can't ignore the bias that sometimes slips through the cracks in the way a shot is framed or presented in the context of the movie. Watching the people in this film, I found it hard to judge the filmmaker's for any bias they may or may not have had. In conclusion, Jesus Camp is an important, disturbing, and eye-opening documentary that will evoke a wide-range of emotions from its viewers.
GRADE: A
DVD Review: Cats in a Bag
Summary: 4 Stars
I can't help but smirk at the inspired title 'Jesus Camp,' which can now join the hallowed ranks of 'Born into Brothels' or 'Hell House' or even 'Snakes on a Plane.' I suppose they've drawn certain conclusions about our small brains and limited attention spans. Fair enough. As for the content, any sane person will be relatively shocked, unless of course you are already familiar with Pentecostals and the like. You won't see a fraction of that unusual behavior at a Catholic or Episcopalian function, but heaven knows they have their issues, too. Ultimately, I think the documentarians overplay their hand. Their neutrality is seriously put into question by the inclusion of a counterpunching radio jock. Of course it's not long before HE is threatening hell upon those he happens to disagree with. That seems to be the problem with most of these people--when it comes to losing an argument, or even making one, they show a stunning lack of grace. But I really don't lose sleep over them. Like most humans, they are somewhat foolish and lost in space half the time. And then they try to raise children! But in their defense, I must say that if they manage to keep their kids drug- and alcohol-free and relatively celibate till they're 18, then it's something of an accomplishment. Inversely, if you are also financially stable, but well-educated and perhaps irreligious, and then send YOUR kids off to a public school with little or no regard for what they are actually exposed to, consider yourself a failure. But this happens all the time. I mean, humans spit out into the world, for better or worse. It's always a gamble, isn't it? At the end of the day, 'Jesus Camp' isn't all that frightening. They usually end up embarrassing themselves. Pastor Ted isn't the antichrist, or clean as a whistle, either. He's just another hypocrite. We all fall short in the eyes of . . . DVD Review: Scary as hell.
Summary: 5 Stars
This documentary indeed invoked fear. Not because liberals now realize that people like this are out there and that serious, as the overweight woman in charge on the brainwashing camp implied. Instead it drew fear because it made me realize that children are being formatted and imprinted on in such a strong manner long before they have any ability to actually take in new information and apply reason to it. This literally is like watching a cross between Christianity and a brain washing cult that targets the younger generation.
Jesus Camp was not easy for me to watch. There were quite a few times when I wanted to just stand up and leave. That is not because I am a Christian, because I am not. I wanted to leave because I was watching a documentary on something so disgusting and appalling that I simply wanted to leave. I wanted to walk away and forget what I saw or pretend that it didn't exist. Despite any desire to leave or to stop watching the film, I urge people who are watching it for the first time to stick it through. You won't have a warm fuzzy feeling after the film, more likely you'll be more than a little sick or angry at what commences. However, you will have a better understanding of what is a problem and what could potentially be a much larger one.
Description of Jesus Camp
Jesus Camp directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady directors of the critically acclaimed The Boys Of Baraka follows Levi Rachael and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids On Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake North Dakota where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army". The film follows these children at camp as they hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for Christ." The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future. System Requirements:Run Time: 84 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating:?PG- 13 UPC:?876964000628 Manufacturer No:?10062The feverish spectacle of a summer camp for evangelical Christian kids is the focus of Jesus Camp, a fascinating if sometimes alarming documentary. (Shortly after its release, the movie gained a new notoriety when Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who appears near the end of the film, resigned his post amid a male prostitute's allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct.) For most of the film, we follow a charismatic teacher, Becky Fischer, as she trains young soldiers in "God's Army" at a camp in North Dakota. Some of the kids emerge as likable and bright, and eager to continue their work as pint-sized preachers; elsewhere, the visions of children speaking in tongues and falling to the floor in ecstasy are more troubling. Even more arresting is the vision of a generation of children home-schooled to believe that the Bible is science, or Fischer's certainty that America's flawed system of democracy will someday be replaced by a theocracy. (In one scene, a cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush is presented to the children, who react by laying their hands on the figure as though in a religious procession.) Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady maintain neutrality about all this, maybe too much so (they throw in some interviews with radio host Mike Papantonio to provide a liberal-Christian viewpoint) and one would like to know more about the grown-ups presented here. Power broker Haggard is the creepiest person in the film, an insincere smooth talker whose advice to one of the young would-be campgoers comes across as entirely cynical. Time will tell whether the film's Christian soldiers will be marching onward. --Robert Horton
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