Directed by Will Bakke
Provident Films, 2011, 91 min., $9.98
Because I use a lot of videos as discussion prompts with my students, I was excited to review One Nation Under God. This documentary chronicles the journey of four Christian college students as they travel around the United States, stopping in various cities to interview people about their faith and religious convictions. The film shows portions of their interviews with people, as well as some of their reflections about those interviews.
As a documentary, I expected this film to be an unbiased depiction of the religious views of people throughout our nation. In reality, however, because it included the interviewers’ reactions to their interviews, it was not. In truth, those reactions sometimes left me stunned and offended. However, I suspect that if my students watched this video, they would appreciate the honesty and rawness of these four film makers and the way they talked, uncensored, about their experience. Rather than repel them as it sometimes did me, I believe my students would connect with this.
As a result, though I did not agree with everything in this film, I most likely will use at least parts of it with my students. Though it’s certainly not an instructional film or a curriculum, used in short segments, I believe it will spark a raw discussion in my students about the faith they experience and see in the world around them.
