I remember hearing about this film in 2006 when it was shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where it won the Best Documentary Award. Even after it was nominated for an Academy Award I thought about actually watching it, but there never came a time when I thought I could stomach watching the film in its entirety. After sitting through Deliver Us from Evil, I was just as enraged, disgusted, and saddened as I thought I would be. The website that was provided for us was a little sleepy and mirrored the Wikipedia page for Berg's documentary. The site is also under construction so maybe that has something to do with it.
The documentary was well-reviewed with the exception of the few claims that were made against it. As far as outreach and distribution, I feel like Berg should have teamed up with non profits and/or other organizations while production was in process. In Berg's Huffington Post article she talks about the controversial trailer for Deliver Us from Evil that couldn't be shown. This could be a naive suggestion, but I wonder if there could have been other ways of showing the information she wanted to be seen if she was already partnered with social outreach organizations. The main response of this film was from film critics, not the public. Nevertheless, it was posted on youtube where anyone can comment on the video. However, the commentators on youtube didn't offer any insightful information or intriguing statements. It definitely got people angry but I'm not sure how effective it really was, seeing most comments looked like the following:
catbsometimes1 religion is awful
UCAGIB Why wouldn't they execute this man in public???
moonphoenix1 Plenty of little girls were abused also, as suggested in this trailer. But it seems that certain people are only outraged when boys are being abused, but id a girl is being abused then it's not big deal. Disgusting. Little girls have been abused this way for a long time, and have been kept quiet. But now that men realized that this is also happening to little boys, all of a sudden it's a problem.
While it is great to offer a place for viewers to comment freely, the majority of it's content is name-calling, immature criticisms, or simply ineffective. Most of the time people end up arguing with each other, and no, it's not an educational debate, to say the least. I often read the comments left on youtube videos and it is almost comedic the way people use it as a vehicle to have petty arguments with unknown users. This is why I feel like documentary filmmakers should team up with nonprofit organizations or other activism groups to help as far as outreach and distribution go. My main point is that just because your film is accessible on youtube doesn't mean it's going to make the difference or get the reaction you think it's going to make.
