|
In Reply to: Re: Documentary: "Faith &Fear: The Children of Krishna" posted by q on August 17, 2004 at 19:24:03:
The fact that it was more in-depth is one factor. It was an hour and a half devoted to one group and provided an historical overview of the group, which helped put the stories of abuse in context.
A bigger factor, I think, is the fact that the filmmakers allowed several SGA's to present their stories in their own words, which played a large part, not only towards the credibility of the film, but also in the emotional impact of the film. Knowing that the stories were so similar to what many SGs suffered in TF made portions of this film very difficult for me to watch.
The third factor, imo, is that it was a documentary produced by, or at least in association with a Public Broadcasting Station (is that what the "s" stands for in PBS?), unlike the Dateline program (NBC), which was produced by the news department of a commercial network tv station. I have first hand experience with a similar program on the CBS network called "48 Hours" or "Another 48 Hours" or something like that. It was several years ago in the mid 90s, and a CBS crew came to my Canadian city to film a segment for a show on a highly controversial subject (not cults). I was present when they filmed and interviewed. When I saw the finished product on tv a few months later I was blown away. It was a disgraceful bit of propaganda disguised as journalism that had completely twisted and taken out of context the scenes shot in Canada. It was full of lies, distortions,hyperbole and fear-mongering. I never watched any U.S. network tv news program again, and the only U.S. television news I trust now is The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart. But I digress. I guess my point here is that a lot depends on the filmmakers, their independence, their motives, etc.
