Jesus Camp (2006)

Verdict:  10/10

This is one of the most terrifying horror documentaries that I've seen in the recent past. Leave aside your exorcists, grudges & halloweens. I've seen Gin gwai 2 a couple of days ago & as far as horror is considered, Jesus Camp actually beats it. If this documentary doesn't send even a single chill through your brain, I promise I will stop seeing any horror movies in the future. 

A couple of quotes from the documentary.

Becky Fischer: It's no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipline, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have... excuse me, but we have the truth!

(If I erase "The Book" from your mind Becky, Where/What is the truth that you are talking about?)  

Becky Fischer: I can go into a playground of kids that don't know anything about Christianity, lead them to the Lord in a matter of, just no time at all. They are so usable in Christianity.

(Usable! Since when did Kids became some junk stationary.)

Jesus Camp directed by Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing is a critically acclaimed documentary film which received an Oscar nomination but lost the award to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

NO TITLE FOR THIS POST

Oh yes. There is no title for this post because honestly I thought about it for a while but nothing appropriate flashed in my brain. When I started my blog, I only wanted to post whatever movies (plus occasional documentaries & science videos) that I've seen from mid-March 2010. I wanted to keep my personal beliefs/opinions regarding anything other than movies away from the blog.

If somebody asked me now what is my religion, I would say I had no religion at my birth, then I am brainwashed to be a Hindu because I was born in a Hindu family (I would have been a Muslim if somebody kidnapped me at birth & sold to a childless Muslim couple), finally came to my senses after 20 years & now I again assume my religious position at birth which is no religion. Mind you, once a person is brainwashed in a religious way (which most of you are) it is very difficult to come out of it, which explains why there are so many suicide killings, honour killings (based on both religion as well as caste). I am proud to come out of such brainwashing.

I had friends in my class who are afraid to mingle with my friends of another religion. I have friends whose family members, in case of a medical emergency, only take blood from within their relatives because they think that other's blood makes them impure. But when you accept evolution as a fact, there will be no place for any type of discrimination in your heart because everybody is related to everybody. You (whoever is reading this now from whichever place on Earth) are related to me, & we both are related to every other person on the planet albeit by a distance. When you think of every other person as your distant relative, you may not love them but at the same time you won't hate them. For e.g., I love & adore my sister. I also love my first cousins very much but not as much as I love my sister. My love towards my second cousins is far less than that towards my first cousins. I actually don't know about my third or fourth or any other cousins. But if somebody comes to me & says that he is say my fourth cousin, I may not love him but I definitely won't hate him. So when you think that every person is related to every other, believe me when I say, the whole perception of your world changes.

One more thing I wanted to add was this brain washing of kids. I have a question which you need not answer here but just answer to yourself. Are kids the property of their parents? (or) Are they the responsibility of their parents? I believe children are not some kind of stationary/property on which parents can start brainwashing their religious beliefs & customs. They are only the responsibility of parents until they have enough maturity. Please don't treat your kids like some property. Teach them the facts & leave them the freedom to choose their lifestyle when they are mature enough.    

Check this video on YouTube although this is not exactly related to the above subject.

Also check these winners of Project Reason short film contest. The 2nd one is nice but the 3rd one eats the cake. 

So why am I Posting all this? It is because I saw a documentary Jesus Camp. I almost cried after seeing that. I completed it at 2 a.m & now it is 5 a.m but I am unable to sleep. I have to let go my frustration of not being able to do anything except lying on my bed & thinking. Now that I vented some of feelings, probably I will sleep. I will post about Jesus Camp in my next post.

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? (2009)

Do you know the following facts?

• The current world population is just under 7 billion.
• Every year 80 million babies are born.
• Each additional being needs water, food & energy.
• Already more than a billion people don't have access to safe drinking clean water.
• A can of beer uses of 150 litres of water. Production of a cotton shirt takes 3000 litres of water.

These are some of the important facts shown in this programme.
Along with the brief description of the programme, I posted a few thoughts of mine below.

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? is an episode of BBC Horizon series & is narrated by the one & only, ever indefatigable Sir David Attenborough. In the programme David discusses about the affect of population growth on our ability to obtain food, water & energy. Also the danger to the environment due to rapid population growth is discussed. David also talks about the duty of individuals to commit to smaller families & to change the way they live for the sake of humanity and planet Earth. He makes an interesting but true observation which is although we humans do care about our near ones, thinking about our species as a whole was never our strong point.

Environment & Etiquette - My Experience

By environment, I don't mean the current global warming, pollution & other environmental problems. What I mean is the effect that proper surroundings bring to the movie viewing experience.

I had a very unique experience last week when I went to watch Alice in Wonderland (3D).

The Bad

That was the opening day morning show. My first surprise of the day was when I saw only 20-30 people in the theatre. Considering Johnny Depp's popularity here, the attendance was a real surprise. I was happy for a while as I was the only one in my row. The show started, I put my 3D glasses on. But wait a second, the movie started in 2D. I thought perhaps the movie will be in 3D after Alice goes to Wonderland. So I removed my glasses. After 5 mins, two people came, sat adjacent to me. The typical late comer questions followed - How much time had passed since the movie started? Did we miss anything?