The Program:Cons, Cults and Kidnapping

 There have been a slew of documentaries recently about the troubled teen industry, but this is the first that was made by survivors of one particularly bad institution. This industry feeds off of the idea that parents have made the mistake of coddling their children and some 'tough love' will turn their lives around. Who knows if this method could work in the hands of experts? The problem is that most people who start these kinds of programs have no educational qualifications, and they hire people with no educational qualifications because it is cheaper. They charge much more than traditional private schools because of this 'special' program-it's a scam. Not only that, the lack of outside supervision makes these places rife with abuse. And for what? A damaged beyond repair relationship with parents and, in this case, a phoney high school diploma. Yeah, the diploma from the school feature in this documentary was not recognized by the State of New York, so the people who did graduate could not use this "qualification" to attend further education.  The tone of the series is a lot more personal than what is usually presented on Netflix, it reminds me of some of the best work of Michael Moore, like Bowling for Columbine.  It is one of those documentaries that makes you more knowledgeable about the world after you watch it. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Race to Witch Mountain

 While this film is not a great or even a good movie, it is still much better than the first two parts of this franchise. Those films take the idea of aliens with superpowers visiting the Earth and presents it in a monumentally boring way. This film sticks to a formula of an alien or two aliens out to do good, but being pursued by nefarious government agents. Dwayne The Rock Johnson does a good job in this movie as a character who is down on his luck, but with a big heart. He is, of course, full of charisma and this movie came out before both his body and his ego ballooned. He does lose fights in this movie. The special effects in the first two films were bad, but they were made around 40 years ago. The special effects in this movie are also bad, and it's only 11 years old. I think perhaps they wanted to release it in 3D, or they did release it in 3D and now the version we watch has very bad effects. This is a forgettable film with a few nice scenes, so it's probably a movie to...
Read more

Scout's Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America

 This is not a particularly well done documentary, but I think it is a very important story. It's the story of how the Boy Scouts of America hid abuse from parents and the authorities. It's also the story of how an immensely powerful organization is using bankruptcy proceedings to evade justice. It's also the story of how an organization can claim on the one hand that it doesn't have any problems with abuse and on the other blame any problems it does have on homosexuals. Because, the logic goes, if they can keep homosexuals out of the organization, they can keep abusers out. But that does not make any sense whatsoever. Just think about the logic of that argument for one second, and you'll see how flimsy it is. It's an important story, as I have said, but I think the history of it is much better detailed in a podcast serious called behind the bastards. So if you want it better understanding of this topic you would do better to listen to that podcast about the fou...
Read more

The Pez Outlaw

 This is one of those rare documentaries that would actually be better told as a fictional movie than a documentary. It's the story of Steve Glew who made millions of dollars smuggling Pez dispensers into the United States. Steve's story is interesting because he grew up very poor, and he discovered something which would ultimately make him wealthy, but then he got bored with doing that, and he wanted to be more creative, and then he crossed a line which he was unable to come back from. Also interesting is how Steve's nemesis is presented as this arrogant villain, but in actual fact everything that Steve was doing was technically illegal. So you feel kind of bad for him because he seems to be a sweet, good-natured individual, but on the other hand it was a completely predictable failure. So an interesting watch
Read more