Here's a look at some of the arthouse films opening today:
"Jesus Camp"
In their documentary "The Boys of Baraka," co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady followed four 12-year-old African-American boys who escape Baltimore's public schools for a private one in Kenya. In "Jesus Camp," the filmmakers show a similar concern for three white kids (two are home-schooled) who go to a "Kids on Fire" evangelical summer camp in Devil's Lake, N.D. The MPAA deemed neither film appropriate for the children portrayed: "The Boys of Baraka" earned an R and "Jesus Camp" got a PG-13.
"I got saved at 5 because I just wanted more from life," says Levi, who preaches at his dad's Rock of Ages church. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, coaches Levi on a career at the pulpit: "Use your 'cute kid' thing until you're 30, then you'll have good content." Pastor Becky Fischer, director of Kids in Ministry International, sounds far less cynical about training Levi and other children for duty in "God's army."
The filmmakers also use the children for their agenda: They outfit Rachel with a radio mike and film from afar as this bold little believer accosts adults: "If you were to die right now, where do you think you'd go?" Unsettling scenes from Fischer's summer camp include a militant dance number where blonde girls in black leotards paint black, double-lightning bolts on their faces.
One misstep is counter-preaching by liberal Methodist Mike Papantonio, co-host of the "Ring of Fire" program on Air America Radio. Wrong notes include quasi-satanic background sounds designed by Michael Furjanic and scored by his group Force Theory. Still, "Jesus Camp" succeeds as a creep show for secularists.


Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by BILL STAMETS


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