Two Evangelical movements – one rooted in the social gospel of MLK, the other in White Christian Nationalism- vie for the soul of American Democracy.
BAD FAITH is a feature-length documentary that tracks the historical trajectory of White Christian Nationalism in the U.S., focusing on its parasitic use of religion to spread and legitimize White Supremacy, which is its foundational ideology. The film is structured around the personal narratives of progressive Evangelical leaders who are leading the charge to combat this ideological scourge. The use of serial narration allows our participants to guide viewers through the different historical periods, each commenting through the prism of their own activism. For over half a century, conservative Evangelical leaders, allied with extremist Republican political operatives, have worked diligently in the shadows, strategizing means by which to co-opt the genuine faith of true believers in order to carry out policies that benefit the wealthy and powerful to the detriment of the poor and the down-trodden, the stranger and the prisoner. In the process they became fervid Christian Nationalists and sought to replace our secular democracy with a form of theocracy in which Biblical law would rule over “God’s Kingdom.”
More information available on the film’s website: www.badfaithdocumentary.com
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STEPHEN UJLAKI, PRODUCER/CO-DIRECTOR
STEPHEN UJLAKI has produced over 30 feature films and documentaries. Early in his career he made eight political documentaries, among them PATRIOTISM, INC., against the Vietnam War, and WITH INTENT TO HARM and THOUSAND YEARS AND LIFE, both advocating major reforms for the desperate conditions in Massachusetts prisons. He subsequently moved to LA where he was a creative executive for HBO Pictures before becoming an independent producer doing 12 “made-fors” for the cable service. As an independent feature producer his credits include, among others,HotSpot,Loch Ness, and Ripley Underground. In 2001 he became Chair of the Film Department at San Francisco State where he founded, along with Telluride co-founder Tom Luddy, the Doc Film Institute to highlight the importance of documentary film. Through the DFI he created the Green Screen Environmental Festival, and festivals honoring great documentarians, among them Fred Wiseman, Richard Leacock,D.A. Pennebaker and Ken Burns. Under the banner of the Doc Film Institute he produced CACHAO UNO MAS for PBS American Masters; it became the first Spanish language simulcast in the series. In 2010 Ujlaki became Dean of the Loyola Marymount University Film School. During that time he produced THE HOLLYWOOD MASTERS, fifty filmed interviews with Hollywood and European movie greats, a series he sold to Netflix. He also produced, with Elvis Mitchell as curator, an extensive festival of West African films, CAMERAS D’AFRIQUE, featuring numerous invited French-speaking African filmmakers who came to show their films and speak before large audiences.
CHRIS JONES, EDITOR/CO-DIRECTOR
CHRIS JONES is a director and editor concerned with themes of environmental and social justice. His short-documentaries TRASH, MANUFACTURED and JUNK have raised global awareness about the impacts of plastic-pollution in our oceans. Since completing a post-production internship on Ken Burns’ Country Music series, Chris has served as assistant editor to Academy Award-winning documentarian Freida Lee Mock on her features RUTH and THE CHOIR AND CONDUCTOR, co-editor alongside Academy Award-winning director Terry Sanders on his feature 9TH CIRCUIT COWBOY, and associate editor on Suzanne Joe Kai’s forthcoming feature LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEB FONG-TORRES. In 2019 he co-wrote and edited WAKE UP: Stories from the Frontlines of Suicide Prevention. He is currently in the research and development phase for PERSONHOOD, a feature-length documentary about the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act.