Milwaukee Film Fest 2013: God Loves Uganda

“God Loves Uganda” does not try to be impartial about the influence of American evangelical Christians in Uganda. And after watching the documentary, you won't either. If it's this hard to feel objective while watching, I can't imagine what filming was like.

The best kind of documentaries shock and horrify you because they show you a strange unreality, one so exaggerated it feels fictional, generally because it manages to incorporate the hot-button issues of the day. So “God Loves Uganda” is not only a masterful work about an engrossing topic, it also manages to be right on time.

Uganda has certainly been in the news quite a bit in the last few years, mostly because it proposed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would make gay sex a crime punishable by death. So how exactly did it come to that? “God Loves Uganda” shows the road that led there.

Apparently, it was paved by evangelists in the U.S. who saw an opportunity in the void created by the exit of brutal dictator Idi Amin. So the International House Of Prayer (IHOP) began sending missionaries to bring people the good news. Some of this news just happened to include that sex before marriage was never okay, and neither is homosexuality.

To the director Roger Ross Williams's credit, he does manage to get some of these missionaries on camera, and actually depicts many of them, particularly the younger ones, as well-meaning but incredibly naïve. They're mostly depicted as kids who see coming to Uganda as an adventure, and who mainly seem condescending and clueless when interacting with “normal” Ugandans when they crowd around to sell their wares. Williams doesn't spare the older ones though. He doesn't doubt their sincerity either, but they don't exactly come off well when they proudly state their intention to devote themselves to God and Bible, but then feign ignorance of what exactly the Anti-Homosexuality Bill does.

Of course, it shows those pleading for tolerance too, and the heartbreaking consequences in a country that is now a dumping ground for extremists who could never gain ground in the U.S. When Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, for example, refused to condemn gay people, his church excommunicated him. Senyonjo says he has had threats on his life. They're not idle ones either, since David Kato, a prominent LGBT activist, was murdered in 2011.

So naturally, it's no small act of courage to speak up against when fringe extremists like Scott Lively, who is shown in “God Loves Uganda” preaching that gays are the true originators of Nazism, are actually taken seriously. (Apparently, he's now on trial for crimes against humanity.)

One of the most heartbreaking facts is that it wasn't always this way, at least according to Williams. Apparently, when the more liberal Clinton was in office, there was a focus on condoms, and, well, logic as a way to prevent HIV. But then the Bush administration threatened to end all U.S. aid unless abstinence was taught, and HIV infection is now up again.

While there are some slight exaggerations, Williams mostly manages to create a simple, unsettling case for a moral issue that is impossible to approach with any sort of objectivity. His doc ends with a few Ugandan missionaries asking some fellow citizens if they've heard the good news. That question has never sounded more sinister.

Grade: A-