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Bass documentary ‘Kidnapped for Christ’ spotlights abusive boarding schools

Bass documentary ‘Kidnapped for Christ’ spotlights abusive boarding schools

Lance Bass is hoping his new documentary, “Kidnapped for Christ,” will put the spotlight on unscrupulous boarding schools that abuse children in the name of rehabilitating them.

kidnapped-for-christ“Kidnapped for Christ” debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival, an alternative film festival running at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival, last week.

The film explores a Christian school in the Dominican Republic where frustrated parents sent their children to shape up. The documentary shows abuse the kids suffer, and controversial behavior-modification methods, including attempting to convert gay children to straight.

“I get a lot of things across my desk that I don’t attach myself to, but I saw the footage and was like ‘Oh, my gosh,'” the former ‘N Sync member said. “My jaw dropped. I can’t believe that this even existed, and I knew I was called to do something.”

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Bass, the executive producer of the film, said Sunday that the reaction to the film at Slamdance has been overwhelming.

“People have walked out because they are so mad that they actually had to walk out the theater,” he said.

Bass is pushing for Congress to regulate these schools and raise awareness of the issue. Besides the documentary, which does not yet have a distributor, there is also the website for the film, kidnappedforchrist.com.

“No one knows about it – and that’s really scary to me. I didn’t know about it. I’ve heard of these places, but I really didn’t think too much about it,” Bass said.

“The big thing is the awareness. We want people to know this is happening, and, yes, some of these schools are good and they do good for kids. B ut the majority of them are just abusing them, and all we want is regulation.”

Watch the film’s trailer here:

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