The Guardian
The BBC broadcast a controversial docu-drama, The Path to 9/11, this week without realising that it had been made by a member of the US religious right.
The three-hour programme, shown over two nights on BBC2 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, was purchased from ABC, a subsidiary of Disney. At the last minute the US television company was forced to re-edit sequences after claims of distortion from former president Bill Clinton and members of his administration.
A BBC spokesman said the organisation did not vet film-makers on their political or religious beliefs.
The film's director, David Cunningham, is active in Youth With a Mission (Ywam), a fundamentalist evangelical organisation founded by his father, Loren Cunningham. According to its publications, the group believes in demonic possession, spiritual healing and conservative sexual morality.
Last month David Cunningham addressed a conference in England organised by the group at its UK headquarters in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, on the making of the film. His talk was entitled Christ-like Witness in the Film Industry.
According to one of the group's publications,"David and his wife Judy are the nucleus of an association of more than 40 Ywam alumni who are called to the communications industry in the Los Angeles area ... to create an independent film company whereby he could both influence the Hollywood film industry and produce major motion pictures that would carry a Biblical, values-based message".
Speaking from the Harpenden HQ, where would-be "disciples" pay more than £2,000 for six-month courses, the missionary organisation's international chair, Lynn Green, said that Mr Cunningham's influence in the film was limited. "He was hired by Disney to direct. He was not the screenwriter".
But in the US, protesting Democrats have seized on the involvement of the religious right in the project to allege a political plot to blame Mr Clinton for the triumph of Osama bin Laden.......
No comments:
Post a Comment