Charity Smith
Staff Writer
Lance Bass (of ‘NSync fame), Mike C. Manning (formerly of The Real World), and Tom DeSanto are executive producers of Showtime’s latest documentary entitled Kidnapped for Christ, which details the workings of a Christian behavioral modification program called Escuela Caribe and located in the Dominican Republic. The film reveals the appalling treatment that the students receive, particularly highlighting the plight of those students who were gay, as they seemed to be special targets in need of modification.
Evangelical filmmaker Kate Logan initially began the project hoping to show how programs like these can help troubled youth, but found instead, after being given complete access for a summer, that it was not the benign force for good she had thought it to be. She heard tales of children being forcibly removed from their homes in the dead of night, humiliating punishments arbitrarily administered, a bizarre and complex system of points and levels that began with a student not being able to so much as cross a room without permission or punishment, and rumors of abuse by the staff.
The film then became about documenting Logan’s attempt to rescue one of the kids from the camp and the struggle that it proved to be. The film makers contend that the treatment of these children is criminal and that the long term devastating effects it has had on so many requires that justice be brought to bear upon it.
Kidnapped for Christ received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at Slamdance this year and will air on Showtime on Thursday July 10th at 7:30 p.m.
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