Wanted: Info on TV doco on the JWs in the late 1990s, possibly Canadian

by MrMonroe 2 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  MrMonroe

  Does anyone remember this? I saw it on Australia's SBS, probably 1997/98. I remember I stayed home from the meeting to watch it and it was very depressing viewing, very discouraging!!

  From memory, it was looking at life as a Witness from the perspective of a teenager. It showed this boy witnessing at a door, plaintively going through his spiel, and also interviewed some girls who were chatting about how much time they spent in a cafe while they were counting time. It was a very sad doco, and I recall thinking afterwards, "I really wish I hadn't watched that." Because it made me see my religion in a different light. And in reality that became one of the first chinks in The Wall around me where tiny shards of light began breaking through.

  Can anyone help with the title or any info?
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  MrMonroe

  Found it after all that.

  Children of Jehovah. Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1996. 1 videocassette (60 min.). [OhioLink]
  Jehovah's Witnesses are a fast growing, media shy religious sect that believe that Armageddon is rapidly approaching. Children are often torn between the rewards of conforming to its laws and the freedoms of a secular world. This program focuses on the pressures adolescents and adults come under as they decide to stay in the church or leave, and on the impact of the terrible penalty faced by those who do leave.

  Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 1995: ABOUT US - Children of Jehovah: SBS , 8.30 pm. Who are those disturbers of the peace, the Jehovah 's Witnesses , who knock on doors and specialise in being told to go away? A Canadian look, through young people's eyes, at the media-shy religious sect.

  Comment by Alan Feuerbacher, http://www.exjws.net/pioneers/alanf.htm "This practice of shunning obviously creates much unnecessary pain and is extremely destructive. About 1994, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) produced a documentary called "Children of Jehovah", which largely consisted of interviews with young people who quit, or were expelled from the JWs, and whose parents shunned them. One can hardly keep a dry eye watching this film. All of this shunning, of course, is done at the direction of Watchtower leaders."

  Has anyone seen this doco? It was very moving. I'll try to see if it's obtainable on DVD.
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  MrMonroe

  I can't find it anywhere outside the Films Media Group website where the doco is available on DVD for $149. Made in 1994 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Rough Cuts" doco series.

  Does anyone know if it's available elsewhere, or has it on tape?