From the moment Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams premiered God Loves Uganda it has drawn raves from critics and audiences, cries of outrage from queer activists, and has been a touchstone for human rights advocates worldwide.
The film, which premieres on PBS on Independent Lens on Monday, May 19 ( the day it also arrives on DVD ), details the horrific rise of homophobia in Uganda—a scourge that the U.S. fundamentalist movement and megachurches have fostered. The systemic vilification of queer people in Uganda led to the brutal slaying of the country's most prominent gay activist, David Kato, and, this past February, the enactment of the country's infamous anti-gay bill.
Williams discussed the film and the risks that he—as an out African-American—took in getting the film made.
Windy City Times: First of all, I want to thank you, as a gay man, for making this film. You're my hero for putting a light on this subject.
Roger Ross Williams: Thank you.
WCT: Where do we even start? This is like Book of Mormon without the jokes. And yet in this bizarre way: This idea that these sunny, happy, shiny white people from the Midwest would descend upon this African country without a clue about the culture and the belief system—these happy, shiny religious terrorists is so outrageous.
Roger Ross Williams: Good—that's what I wanted to show. People think that when they read about what's going on in Uganda that these are these evil, scary-looking, hate-filled people doing this but they're actually these happy, sunny kids from Middle America who don't even really know the damage they are causing. I wanted to show that. Now, obviously, there are the evil people like Scott Lively who fits the mold of the evil hatemonger—he looks, acts and speaks the part—but these kids sort of trick you and creep up on you.
WCT: Let's talk about the genesis of the film and where the idea for it came from.
Roger Ross Williams: I grew up in the church—the Black Baptist church singing in the choir like a lot of gay men and it was a family church but it was not an accepting church and I was always in the closet and I had to escape to New York. So, the idea of using religion to demonize other people had been with me for a very long time.
When it hit home for me and when I knew I had to make this movie was when I went on a research trip to Uganda and the first person I met was the gay activist David Kato. He came to my hotel with four other gay activists. We talked and he said, "There are lots of people making films about us but no one is making a film about the damage that American fundamentalists—the evangelicals—have done in our country and they've kicked everything up to this whole other level and that's the real force behind the antigay bill. And that was all I had to hear.
WCT: That must have been quite a meeting.
Roger Ross Williams: Yes. We went to his offices because he wouldn't stand on the street. He said, "I can't. People will throw things at me—anything could happen." I thought he was just being paranoid. I wanted to interview him and these other activists at that point for research because I didn't have a real crew or anything but I ended up using his interview because shortly after that he was brutally murdered.
I wanted to start in Africa with the anti-gay Ugandan pastors first because it's the most dangerous part and also because I knew that if they found out I was gay they wouldn't cooperate and might even kill me. Many of them claim they've never met a gay person and many that they've cured gay people. So I was following some really powerful pastors that were guarded by the military and it was scary and I was always living on the edge because I was always afraid that they were going to find out.
WCT: I can't even imagine.
Roger Ross Williams: It was really tense and I was a wreck the whole time. Then something horrible happened—someone sent an email to Jo Anna Watson, an Evangelical missionary living in Kampala, Uganda, led me to IHOP [the International House of Prayer, based in Kansas City, Missouri]. Jo Anna had brought Lou Engle, the senior leader from IHOP to Uganda. Jo Anna wrote about me on her blog and she got this email that read, "He's a homosexual with a gay agenda." So she sent it to all the anti-gay pastors I had been following in Uganda—none of which I knew about.
They then invited me to dinner and I remember there were two giant guard dogs and that someone was filming me. They surrounded me and pulled out this email and said, "We know you're a homosexual," and I just froze. I didn't know what they were going to do. I didn't know if they were going to kill me. They pulled out a second article from an interview with a paper in my hometown in eastern Pennsylvania and the first line of that article said, "Roger Ross Williams is a double minority: he's Black and he's gay," and then it goes on to mention the Oscar. So these pastors said, "You won an Oscar so you're obviously high-profile. So, we're not going to kill you, we're not going to harm you—we're going to cure you." And they started praying over me. So I always say the Oscar saved my life. [Laughs]
WCT: [Laughing] Oh, my God—proof-positive of the power of the Oscar. It's so insane!
Roger Ross Williams: Right?! Each pastor thought I was making a film about them because their egos are so huge.
WCT: There are so many issues that your film raises, so many areas that we could talk about for hours but I want to focus on the anti-gay bill that was enacted in February of this year. I'm sure you're following the impact of that.
Roger Ross Williams: Absolutely. I'm in touch with the community there. I actually just flew over a Ugandan activist for a summit here at Lincoln Center. Lots have happened since the bill was passed. The first trial of a gay couple has just begun. Since President [Yoweri] Museveni signed the bill, the country has hosted this national anti-gay rally with hundreds of thousands of people. Imagine an anti-gay rally so big that it becomes a national holiday and imagine the president of the nation saying, "Today is a day we shall celebrate we have fought the evil of homosexuality." That's what just happened there.
WCT: Why do you think these religious terrorists targeted Uganda and other countries like it?
Roger Ross Williams: The fundamentalists really believe that they've lost the cultural war here in America. With marriage equality passing state by state, that battle is over but they believe they can win the cultural war in the developing world and Africa especially.
WCT: Let's try to end on a note of hope here: Is there hope?
Roger Ross Williams: We're all doomed! [Laughs] No, no, but unfortunately that's what people don't realize as we're making all these strides here. I was the grand marshal at San Francisco's gay pride parade last year and it was an incredible day but I reminded the crowd, "When you're done celebrating today, go back to work tomorrow because what you're not seeing is that the rest of the world is becoming more homophobic—Russia, India, Africa and, before you know it, you're going to look up and we're going to be this isolated country so you have to continue to fight for your brothers and sisters around the world or we're going to be in trouble."
Visit www.godlovesuganda.com/ .
