Review of God Loves Uganda (2013) by Michael H — 20 Sep 2014

Williams gets out of the way of his subjects and lets them speak for themselves. Evangelical Christians (mostly from the International House of Prayer) are given plenty of screen time to describe their mission. Possibly even more screen time than those describing the harm they see resulting from Christian colonialism. There are also some interesting contrasts in how American policies change the way aid is provided from administration to administration and how the recipients adjust to keep aid coming.

I found particularly intriguing the segments of earnest young evangelicals proselytizing to bemused Ugandans who don't seem to have any idea what these white kids are about and appear to just want them to be done and go away. When engaging street vendors, it's pretty obvious that the Ugandans are kept in the engagement economically because the kids are buying things from them and may buy more. We don't see what keeps the Ugandans engaged with the young missionaries when they are visited at their homes but I imagine that they are probably putting up with these kids because they also bring some sort of actual benefit in the form of goods or services.

The one disappointing flaw in the movie is the manner in which the International House of Prayer is introduced; beginning with a series of shots of run down or abandoned Kansas City storefronts bearing signs likely to elicit negative reactions in the movie's target audience and then moving directly from those disgust-inducing images, directly to IHOP, carrying over the elicited response to the new target. It's the same sort of disgust-induced morality ploy displayed later in the movie when a Ugandan politician uses images of gay men engaged in unusual and messy acts to elicit a visceral response against homosexuality from his audience. Williams isn't nearly as heavy handed, but it's the same technique.

Other than that, though, very well done.