Documentaries
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Well!
I looked at the documentaries on that page once I had the Netflix page up.
Some we've seen. One I'd never even heard of, so I ordered it but it will be
way down the queue. That's fine.
I did look it up online, though, and the reviews are fascinating, and there's
even an official site with some images. A couple of paragraphs from a
review are below, and the documentary is "Hell House":
--------. . .George Ratcliffe's documentary "Hell House" chronicles the
damnedest thing I've seen in ages (pun intended): for the past ten years, the
Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas, has presented "Hell House",
literally, a house of horrors tour depicting not the fictitious evils of witches and
zombies, but the very real "sins" of drugs, AIDS, suicide, abortion, incest,
and school violence (Trinity's graphic Columbine scene drew record crowds in
1999).
Focusing on last year's "Hell House X", Ratcliffe presents a remarkably fair
look at the event's conceptualization, rehearsal, construction, and eventual
October 31 presentation, complete with the usual backstage technical gaffes (a
Star Of David mistakenly drawn for a Pentagram) and mixed response from an
audience that is not always willing to echo the performers' rather rigid
sentiment. Subplots focus on specific participants, most memorably, a "stage father",
single after his wife has left him for a chatroom lover, who lovingly dotes on
his children and even allows his personal trauma as a basis for one of the
sketches. One gets a sense that "Hell House" is as much a cathartic release for
Cedar Hill's teens (many are eager to participate in the Rave rape sketch, if
for no other reason than to "get to dance"), as it is a pageant of some rather
hysterical spiritual parables.
---------------
Sandra
I looked at the documentaries on that page once I had the Netflix page up.
Some we've seen. One I'd never even heard of, so I ordered it but it will be
way down the queue. That's fine.
I did look it up online, though, and the reviews are fascinating, and there's
even an official site with some images. A couple of paragraphs from a
review are below, and the documentary is "Hell House":
--------. . .George Ratcliffe's documentary "Hell House" chronicles the
damnedest thing I've seen in ages (pun intended): for the past ten years, the
Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas, has presented "Hell House",
literally, a house of horrors tour depicting not the fictitious evils of witches and
zombies, but the very real "sins" of drugs, AIDS, suicide, abortion, incest,
and school violence (Trinity's graphic Columbine scene drew record crowds in
1999).
Focusing on last year's "Hell House X", Ratcliffe presents a remarkably fair
look at the event's conceptualization, rehearsal, construction, and eventual
October 31 presentation, complete with the usual backstage technical gaffes (a
Star Of David mistakenly drawn for a Pentagram) and mixed response from an
audience that is not always willing to echo the performers' rather rigid
sentiment. Subplots focus on specific participants, most memorably, a "stage father",
single after his wife has left him for a chatroom lover, who lovingly dotes on
his children and even allows his personal trauma as a basis for one of the
sketches. One gets a sense that "Hell House" is as much a cathartic release for
Cedar Hill's teens (many are eager to participate in the Rave rape sketch, if
for no other reason than to "get to dance"), as it is a pageant of some rather
hysterical spiritual parables.
---------------
Sandra