A documentary film about a mountain ethnic group in South East Asia, the Prisoners of a White God, tells the story about a researcher, who investigates the activities of christian missionaries and international development among the Akha peoples.
Prisoners of a White God received the Grand Prixes at RAFF Film Festival, at Ecofilm Festival, at Festival of the Mountain Films, at "It's Up To You" Film Festival and the Main Prize at Ekotopfilm in 2008!
Copyright: © fPcN interCultural: Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
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Prisoners of a White God Commentary - Akha TV 9
being raped as a child in the religious missions....
Maybe you can comment on the fact that the writer of the Shack tells on his web site about being raped as a child in the missions but the churches don't bring this up when praising the book.
What about the film made by missionary children who tell how they were raped in the mission schools just like the Akha?
"All God's Children"
?????????
from: deen.tomath at gmail com
phew...
Everyone interested in international aid should watch this movie.
WOW
All i can say is that this film is about 30% truth and 70% crap. Tomas is a lier, watch this film several times and you will see the many inconsistency in this story. This is a horrible film. Why in the world did it win at any film festivals?
Sure the Missionaries are not perfect. We all know that. Foreign missionaries have always made huge cultural mistakes, trampling on Culture.
But Tomas does the same thing with showing shots of Akha woman's breasts in every clip possible. That is very rude! He is exploiting them to make his film eccentric. The Akha woman would be very ashamed to know that your showing their breasts to the world.
He make several statements in this film that are just not true! Here are 2 out of around 30 that i counted in just the Thailand portion of the film. They are lies, not a difference of opinion. Just bad journalism!
1. There are School in Akha Villages.
What? Not true. There are some schools in a few Akha Villages. There are hundreds of Akha villages in Thailand without School.
2. There are Thai teachers living in the Villages?
Sorry Dude, just not true!
There are many lies in this film. Im gonna call Tomas the "Czech Michael Moore" Telling half truths to push his own agenda. Or should i say push Matthew McDainels Agenda. www.akha.org.
The issues that the Akha face are globalization issues. Missionaries do need to rethink several of their strategies with the work they do with the Akha. But the main issue is that The Thai government wants the hill-tribe people to be washed into mainline thai society.
reply to Steve, from Tomáš Ryška - film maker
Dear Steve, thank you for your interest in our film.
i wish you were more concrete in your critique so we could discuss it.
The Akha women you refer to had a chance to express their consent while provided with the information how the film material will be used. on the contrary, the children did not have any chance to provide their informed consent while being abused by missionaries. from this point of view your opinion seems to be more than idle (if we ever accept the comparison of the women breast and sexual abuse of children.). also, in the case we would dress the women we would change the reality to serve the western (sic) perception of the world. nudity of the upper part of the body is very much natural among the Akha. actually, until the moment the missionaries explained to the villagers that nudity is a sin.
there are schools provided for Akha (and other ethnic minorities) children in Thailand. years ago the government of Thailand made a decree to build at least one school for every three villages. this has been accomplished even in the remote areas. all the villages i stayed at during my fieldwork had no problem with the access to school for their children. some have the school right in the village, some have to walk. there are also boarding schools provided for the children by the government. these children come back for a weekend every week (the children in the missionary schools usually come back once a year - they are basically cut off from their own families. this method of conversion has been suggested by American missionary Paul Lewis tens of years ago in one of his texts. the reason was that missionaries were not lucky in conversions of the Akha (contrary to other mountain ethnic groups). he knew that if the children are taken away of their families their way of thinking can be changed.) so the claim missionaries make to their donors (and the public) that if they would not provide education to mountain children they would get none is NOT TRUE!
No Thai teachers in the villages? my research assistant (Akha) received her Thai name by one of the Thai teachers which you claim do not exist about twenty years ago!!! one of "my villages" has even got a Thai teacher of the very young children- something like a pre-school teacher.
Steve, in the case you need to be provided with any additional information, please, feel free to contact me: tr(at)uwip.org
Thank you for this powerful
Thank you for this powerful documentary. I know some of the members of the Akha Heritage Foundation in Salem, Oregon (USA). One man in the organization is married to an Akha woman, and they say the same things the movie does. This is very real, and disturbing. There are a number of prominent churches in Salem who send missionaries to the villages described in the documentary. Aren't there legal things that can be done? I know the state does not like to pry into "church" affairs, but can we make it more publicly visible? Bring it to the attention of Legislators and newspapers? By publicly and loudly telling the truth of these matters for what it is: forced conversions, exploitations of poor people; decimating a culture; alienating children from their families; all while hiding behind a mask of righteousness; can our State force the churches to cease? I know the churches have "permission" of the government that is oppressing the Akha people, but if a plea came from a State/National Legislator, do you think it could help? If is is proven that people/children are taken against their will, can the government do anything to punish the churches/organizations responsible?
Tomas Ryska thanks for showing us Akha and "us"
In the US I feel like the kidnapped Akha children, as far as the same hierarchy not seeing me or valuing anything I am or can do. Time goes by for me under that regime, too, and it makes me lose that much of who I was and I feel displaced. I feel like a stranger. The Bible says to betray not the wanderers and outcasts, strangers and pilgrims. We can see in the video that though the Akha on trails may be afraid sometimes, they receive strangers, but I do not receive such a welcome here unless I bring money.
At first hierarchicalism may impress, but then we find out disappointing reasons for its license. Hierarchicalism is trying to tell us it is unworthy.
The UN investigation concluded that girls had been abused, but not boys? Hmm.
Are children being snatched for adoption out of the local country, as well as to these strange covert brothels called orphanages, but the children there all have parents?