by Joe Mirabella, Director of Campaigns for All Out:
God Loves Uganda premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, Jan. 18. Directed by Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams, the documentary examines the relationship between American evangelical churches, their missionaries and anti-gay laws in Africa, like Uganda's so-called "kill the gays" bill.
A growing majority of people of faith in the United States are supportive of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to live and love, but God Loves Uganda exposes the subversive segment of U.S. churches that export dangerous anti-gay belief systems, which have provided momentum for some of the worst anti-gay laws in the world.
"The world has never had an up-close look at how anti-gay animus is exported from the United States to places like Uganda," said Andre Banks, executive director and co-founder of All Out. "God Loves Uganda shows us how the U.S. culture war is being shipped wholesale to Africa, sometimes unknowingly, but always with disastrous consequences. The film should be required viewing.
"The film also raises urgent questions for American people of faith who care about justice and human rights," Banks continued. "The large majority of churches in the U.S. raise money to do good in their communities and abroad. But this film makes clear that we must each be certain that our contributions at the collection plate are not going, directly or indirectly, toward supporting laws that call for the death of gays and lesbians."
"In the well-known trope about Africa, a white man journeys into the heart of darkness and finds the mystery of Africa and its unknowable otherness. I, a black man, made that journey and found... America," Roger Ross Williams said. "I hope God Loves Uganda helps accelerate the good work of organizations like All Out by helping American Evangelicals understand the negative consequences of some of the deadly lessons imported to Africa by some people of faith. We should be terrified by the results of these actions."
Roger Ross Williams won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) with his film Music by Prudence and is the first African American to win an Oscar for directing and producing a film. God Loves Uganda was produced by Julie Goldman and Motto Pictures.
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