God Loves Uganda
Short film Completed 2013
Director
Roger Ross Williams
Director
RaMell Ross
Doc Society helped with
Impact
Went to Good Pitch
Runtime: 83 minutes
Follow the film
God Loves Uganda explores the role of the American evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with both creating schools and hospitals and promoting dangerous religious bigotry. The film follows evangelical leaders in America and Uganda along with politicians and missionaries as they attempt the radical task of eliminating “sexual sin” and converting Ugandans to fundamentalist Christianity.
Long Synopsis: God Loves Uganda explores the role of the American evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with both creating schools and hospitals and promoting dangerous religious bigotry. The film follows evangelical leaders in America and Uganda along with politicians and missionaries as they attempt the radical task of eliminating “sexual sin” and converting Ugandans to fundamentalist Christianity.
As an American influenced bill to make homosexuality punishable by death wins widespread support, tension in Uganda mounts and an atmosphere of murderous hatred takes hold. The film reveals the conflicting motives of faith and greed, ecstasy and egotism, among Ugandan ministers, American evangelical leaders and the foot soldiers of a theology that sees Uganda as a test case, ground zero in a battle not for millions, but billions of souls.
Through verite, interviews, and hidden camera footage - and with unprecedented access - God Loves Uganda takes viewers inside the evangelical movement in both the US and Uganda. It features Lou Engle, the creator of The Call, which brings tens of thousands of believers together to pray against sexual sin. It provides a rare view of the most powerful evangelical minister in Uganda, who lives in a mansion where he’s served by a white coated chef. It goes into a Ugandan church where a preacher whips a congregation into mass hysteria with anti-gay rhetoric. It records the culture clash between enthusiastic Midwestern missionaries and world weary Ugandans. It features a heartbreaking interview with gay activist David Kato shortly before he was murdered. It tells the moving story of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a minister excommunicated, ostracized and literally spat on for being tolerant and his remarkable campaign for peace and healing in Uganda. Shocking, horrifying, touching and enlightening, God Loves Uganda will make you question what you thought you knew about religion.
Outreach Work Supported
Lobbying, screenings and coalition building.
Crew
Roger Ross Williams
Director
Roger Ross Williams directed and produced Music by Prudence, which won the 2010 Academy Award® for documentary short subject. He is the first African American to win an Oscar® for directing and producing a film, short or feature. Williams began his career producing political satire for Comedy Central and Michael Moore’s Emmy award winning series TV Nation. He went on to work as a broadcast journalist for ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CNN. He has also produced and directed numerous primetime specials for PBS, ABC, CBS, Sundance Channel, and New York Times Television. He has won numerous awards including a NAMIC Vision Award and the National Headliner for Best Human Interest Feature documentary. His latest film God Loves Uganda premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in US Documentary Competition and received rave reviews. Williams has several projects in development including Traveling While Black, a transmedia project and a narrative project about the African American Baptist church titled Black Sheep.
Julie Goldman has produced a wide range of award winning documentaries, working with a line-up of talented and acclaimed filmmakers, that have been featured at the most prestigious film festivals and distributed around the world.
Julie executive produced THE KILL TEAM directed by Dan Krauss, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary. In January 2013, three films that Julie produced premiered in US Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival: GOD LOVES UGANDA directed by Roger Ross Williams, MANHUNT directed by Greg Barker and GIDEON’S ARMY directed by Dawn Porter.
Julie premiered two films at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival: Participant Media’s A PLACE AT THE TABLE directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, which will be released by Magnolia Pictures in March 2013, and AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY directed by Alison Klayman, which was recently shortlisted for the 2013 Academy Award.
In 2011, Julie produced BUCK, which won the Sundance US Documentary Audience Award. BUCK was shortlisted for an Academy Award and was one of 2011’s top 5 grossing documentaries.
Julie was Executive Producer of IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, which was released by THINKFilm. She was nominated by the Producers Guild of America for the Producer of the Year Award for SERGIO and was a consultant on the Academy Award winning THE COVE and Matt Tyrnauer’s acclaimed VALENTINO THE LAST EMPEROR.
She has several films that are currently in production: 1971 directed by Johanna Hamilton; Steve James and Raj Patel’s GENERATION FOOD; THE GREAT INVISIBLE directed by Margaret Brown; and REVOLUTION directed by Greg Barker.
