FACING DARKNESS REVIEWED
“Facing Darkness” takes us back to 2014 when Ebola became big in the Western media. Two American aid workers trying to stop the spread of the disease became infected. Bucking convention, they were flown back to the US and held at a secure location. The rest of this documentary focuses on how Samaritan’s Purse maintained peace and care in Liberia. They ministered the sick and dying, while trying to keep a sense of sanity about them. While this might put off some, it’s a testament to the human spirit.
It’s also the main problem with the documentary. The focus constantly splits between providing a history of the area, a history of Ebola, a focus on the infected aid workers and then Samaritan’s Purse. What makes things trickier is that it was up to Samaritan’s Purse to get the Liberians to abandon their cultural approach to caring for the dead. It turns out that kissing and hugging corpses can spread communicable diseases. Faster than a college kid gets triggered, the ethics of such force cultural changes are debated.
The material is strong, it’s just that it feels like there were three or four docs stuffed into one.
FILM STATS
- Not Rated
- 1 hr and 33 mins
- Virgil Films
