Money, Sex, Power & Christian Evangelicals in Roger Ross Williams' 'God Loves Uganda'

An in depth interview with Oscar winning director, Roger Ross Williams as he discusses his latest film: God Loves Uganda.

Money, Sex, Power & Christian Evangelicals in Roger Ross Williams' 'God Loves Uganda'

Roger Ross Williams at Sundance London.

Photo credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Sundance London

The Reception

OKA: How did you get access to some of the people featured in the film? Have they seen the film and how did they respond?

RRW: Persistence. One of the things that Mike Nichols (the founder of IHOP) is that any press for IHOP is good. For people like Kayanja I represented this American coming there to make a film about him. When I went to meet Kayanja he sat down on his throne and said “I knew you were coming, God told me you were coming”. He would do his giant crusades and drag me onstage and say “I have an Oscar winning director following me making a film about me!” It shows that it was about ego and a deep belief in what he was doing. We flew Jono Hall (the media director of IHOP who’s in the film) and Stuart (who went to Uganda with Lou Engle) to NY and showed them the film. We sat down afterwards for four hours and had a conversation about the film. It’s probably very tough for them because they’re in the film and it’s hard not to be defensive. But the glimmer of hope came when Stuart said to me “this makes me think a little bit about how we’re spreading our message in Africa.” I think that Jono was very disappointed. He was the reason we got the access we did – he convinced Pickle and Lou Engle to talk to us – and he couldn’t help but be disappointed, because he wanted this to be a propaganda film about IHOP. But they have their own resources for that: they have a dedicated media department with a thousand employees at IHOP and a $30 million year operating budget; they turn out an incredible amount of media every year.Kayanja hasn’t seen the film. He lives in a very isolated bubble and he would have no way of seeing it because we haven’t screened in Kampala. We did screen at the Dallas International Film Festival, but he didn’t come.

OKA: When are you planning on screening it in Kampala?

RRW: I don’t know because you can’t really – we would probably be shut down pretty quickly and arrested. David Cecilwho did a play in Kampala was recently arrested and deported. We are screening April 30th in Kenya, where we’ll also have a panel with the Chief Justice of Nairobi and Bishop Christopher and we’ll be bringing some of the activists over. So that’s our big east African premiere.

OKA: What were you hoping they’d take from the film?

RRW: I’m not saying that IHOP is responsible for the bill or played any role in the bill but the foot-soldiers and kids on the ground who don’t understand the culture and are preaching a message of intolerance – they need to take responsibility for that message and how that message gets translated into violence. And that’s what I explained to them, and he (Jono) was like “we’re not responsible for that”. That’s also what I said to Jesse and Michelle who said the Bill was ‘not a big deal’.

OKA: Have audiences been able to process the various aspects of the film?

RRW: No single audience member is going to digest everything. But what we’ve been finding in screenings is that people walk away really engaged in the issue and want to know more. Our Q&A’s are always really great because the whole theatre stays and I will stand outside in the lobby for an hour and a half because people want to talk and know more.  So we’ve developed these discussion guides for Christians, evangelicals and they give you timelines, a history, links, definitions so you can become more engaged. And so that when people host screenings at their churches they can have information and can have discussions in their own communities about the issues.

OKA: It’s great that the project anticipates discussion. Obviously nothing’s going to happen overnight, but it feels at the moment that not many people (and certainly not the mainstream) are thinking about how all of these elements work together to create this situation.

RRW: Right, and when we went to Sundance we took part in the annual Windrider Forum. This organization brought 150 theology students to Sundance and we had a panel in Park City. We were nervous but it was a really good discussion. It was clear that the film is affecting people here and making them think about their own relationship to the evangelical church. It’s an uphill climb but it’s happening.  And I think that when people watch this film they see such extremes that they think about their own communities, because this is an extreme case but it makes people wonder whether that’s where they’re headed too. This is what would happen if the evangelicals took over America; this is what intolerance and hatred look like because when you unleash it, it devours everyone.

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