Well, I had the rare opportunity to see this movie tonight, and I would HIGHLY recommed it for all ex-Jehovah's Witnesses!!!
The documentary film basically consisted of a series of interviews with ex-Jehovah's Witnesses.
Instead of having one interview with the first person, then proceedeing on to the next one, however, Mr. Smith put together footage from each interview specific to a topic - what it was like being a small child when the parents converted, what it was like being dragged to the meetings and out in "service" as a small child, what it was like missing out on Christmas, birthdays and other fun holidays, what it was like going to school and feeling different or isolated, what it was like being denied - "discouraged" - from getting a college education, what it was like dating - or "non-dating" in the religion, what it was like having one's sexual behaviors controlled and censured, what it was like being disfellowshipped, and so on...
As the film's director, Gregorio Smith said, his "target audience" was three-fold...
Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, who would be most likely to identify with the people in the film...
Non-Jehovah's Witnesses - "worldly" people - who are interested in or might be considering joining the religion...
And the group least likely to actually see the movie - active Jehovah's Witnesses - however, disenchanted JWs and those considering an exit might be more likely to view it.
It was well done. The movie used a somewhat non-threatening approach, as opposed to a confrontational or sensationalistic technique.
There wasn't anything actually NEW in the movie's information, though one comment made by a young man - Gregorio's brother, I think - really hit home... Regarding the practice of making small children go door-to-door proselytising, he said:
"Here they are sending children door-to-door presenting people with a CHOICE, yet the children going door-to-door [attempting to lure more people into the religion] have absolutely NO CHOICE in the matter...."
That's a rough quote, by the way...
I wish I'd recorded it on my phone, but I thought that would have been too obvious.
Mr. Smith said that he's working on having the film picked up by Netflix or something like that. Unfortunately, the film is not available right now - not even on DVDs.
There was a brief question-and-answer session afterwards, but it didn't bring out any new information, either. Most of the questions appeared to have been asked by people unfamiliar with the religion.
Mr. Smith asked for a show of hands after the movie regarding who were ex-Jehovah's Witnesses; about half of the audience were ex-Jehovah's Witnesses.
Interestingly, I observed at least two families get up and leave the theater soon after the start of the question-and-answer session following the movie. They really didn't look very happy, either. I wondered whether they were "active" Jehovah's Witnesses checking out the movie, or just in a hurry to get home.
The movie was much harder-hitting than the "Knocking" softumentary, but didn't mention "shunning" though it touched on the effects of the practice. Nor was the "blood transfusion" issue discussed - touched on very briefly, if I remember correctly, but not really discussed.
Most of the participants were disfellowshipped. No one specifically stated that they'd disassociated themselves, but at least 3 stated that they'd been disfellowshipped. Most of the participants were also fairly young; between 20 and 30 years old. [I told Mr. Smith after the movie that he needed to include some of MY generation, because we saw that whole "1975" fiasco go down... Hee hee!!]
There was one Hispanic gay man, two - three black men [if I remember correctly??], one woman, and one white man who was obviously still "thinking like a JW", despite his exit from the religion.
Mr. Smith ended up making his selections for the film through an unlikely set of coincidences; he'd interviewed over 20 people for the film, but most of the people interviewed weren't there to be in the movie; they just wanted to be able to talk to someone about the problems and issues they had with the religion.
For his final selection, he chose a woman he'd run into at a party; they'd had one date where they found out that they were both ex-JWs, and now they're good friends, so that's why she agreed to be in the movie. The Hispanic gay man was her co-worker - and neither of them realized that they had that in common, either, until Mr. Smith began fielding the idea of the movie to her. Another one was also a co-worker, I think...
Can't remember all the details... Sorry.
That's all I can recall for now. I'll add to this thread as/if I remember more details of the movie; it's late here and I need some sleep...
If you want to go to his website, though, here is the link: http://www.hereliesthetruth.com/
Zid