wnatw posted:

This documentary was akin to sending a film crew into the slums of Detroit and finding the most hosed up criminals to interview and presenting that as "the way life is in the United States, how sad".

The fact that a bunch of hipsters-turned-filmmakers can bribe an official to release a war criminal from jail is pretty alarming, but it also goes to show just how much they actually care about their subject. Their account of Liberia's post-colonial history lasted all of.... 15 seconds? The rest of the film was just them finding hosed up poo poo to put on camera, nothing more -- no lesson, no context, and nothing from the rest of the country or better parts of Monrovia.

Yes Liberia is hosed up. Yes the UN mission is a stopgap solution. But this "documentary" is the worst kind of exploitation, as it's neither objective nor does it have any point other than "hey look at us travel to this hosed up place".