DOCO-MENTARY

OK. Watched two great docos on Channel 4 last night. Very professional. The first was a Dispatches by David Modell called In Gods Name (available on 4oD) which was a fairly typical Dispatches style shock piece about the religious rights access to power in the UK. It ended up not being that shocking really. He filmed an eccentric called Stephen Green who had a small following and was against Mosques and gays. He said he believed Allah was Satan. He also filmed a slightly more media savvy Christian woman who was against abortion. He tried to link the two together and got the woman to speak in a lot more vague terms about her dislike for Islam. Is any of this shocking? Not really. Have they got access to power? Well yes. The woman has, if you call access to Conservative MPs who are already against abortion anyway access to power. I am not sure the premise of the movie was fulfilled by the substance, but I like films about nutty people and I like David Modell's work so I enjoyed it anyway.

Pickled Politics
Bartholomew's Notes on Religion

Much better was Jon Ronson's Reverend Death which is also available on 4oD. Apparently this was filmed over six years. I liked the way Jon built up a relationship with the guy and was able to put his critisisms to him in an open way rather than "exposing" the guy which gets a bit tedious these days. You get to see all the way round this reverend, from other medical people who assist suicide legally, religious people, as well as from the reverends more shocking "helper". Top stuff on the box.