Jesus Camp - portrait of an evangelical US summer camp

"Warlocks are the enemies of God!”, shouts pastor Becky Fischer at her young congregation. “If it had been in the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death!”. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s documentary about an evangelical summer camp is full of such simultaneously hilarious and disquieting moments. Such as when a guest speaker brings a life-sized cutout of George W Bush, and asks the children to pray towards him, hands outstretched. Or when Fischer asks God to safeguard her Powerpoint presentation from the devil’s meddling. Energetic and gregarious, Pastor Fischer has the air of a soccer mom rather than a zealot, but her goal is explicit: she sees extremist Islam as a threat, and wants to instil similar fanaticism and dedication in the children of America. She does so through prop-filled sermons rather than terror camps, but as the documentary progresses, it becomes apparent that the effect of her crusade is to wage war against childhood. Even-handed and thought-provoking, this Oscar-nominated documentary is a timely reminder of the limits of faith.