This gripping shock-doc looks inside the Kids on Fire evangelical summer camp in North Dakota, where training starts young for a “new army of God” to “take back America for Christ”. Spooky soundtrack aside, the footage is largely left to speak for itself: pastor Becky Fischer cheerily picking out a font dripping with blood for her PowerPoint presentation on punishment for sin; a home-school lesson declaring global warming as bollocks; children at a sermon weeping with ecstasy. Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady superbly capture the fervour and impressionability of three particular sprogs: preacher Levi, Christian metal fan Tory and pro-life protester Rachael. The nation’s future leaders? It’s made clear this is far from a fringe phenomenon: “If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election,” we hear. Disturbing stuff.
