Hoo boy. I grew up evangelical and my aunt is actually still an African missionary - so this was a fun and interesting one for me. I gave it an 8/10 to balance out review bombers, really it's more of a 6 or 7 to me based on the quality. A lot of these kinds of docs are just being pumped out according to an HBO template now, you can't really expect them to be visionary works anymore.
Renee Bach, or the "Angel of Death," was barely an adult when she traveled to Uganda after hearing "God's call." Soon upon her arrival, with exactly 0 medical training or education, she began treating very sick children at her "Serving His Children" NGO house in Jinja, Uganda. This was a practice that escalated, went on for years - was tempered somewhat by the hiring of some doctors and nurses - and then fell apart when she was finally shut down by the Ugandan government over her NGO practicing medical treatment without a license. Renee then fled to America (with her Ugandan daughter) when she started receiving death threats, due to the online work of a political activist group called "No White Saviors."
Actually, it's hard not to draw comparisons between Renee and another ambitious white woman recently fallen from grace - Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous and currently incarcerated Steve Jobs fangirl. The psychology between these characters is pretty similar - both intelligent white women from privileged backgrounds, who both had egos that sailed unshakably into the high heavens, without a thing on Earth apparently able to stop their brains. The difference being, of course, that Holmes was motivated by personal ambition. Renee was motivated by religious convictions, which seemed to literally make her think, when opportunities found her, that she could just "be a doctor" because, whatever, "God qualifies the chosen."
It was really really difficult watching a video clip of this homeschooled woman, who came from wealth, privilege, and grew up in a religious bubble - walk around a makeshift infirmary and question the Ugandan doctors and nurses she was forced to hire, and even at times TEACH them how to treat patients. With zero licensed medical training. Just nauseating, and definitely earns the documentary's title just for that. Another fun moment was when it's recalled by a former employee of Renee's that Renee at least once admitted to administering treatment just based on "feelings she would get from God."
Now for the flipside - however unlikable Renee comes across, it's possible that the members of the activist group "No White Saviors," hellbent on seeing Renee imprisoned, hilariously sensationalizing every aspect of Renee's actions, are even more unlikable than Renee by the end of it. They were just as one-track minded as Renee and her ilk. It was also a great big face-palm moment when it's revealed that the white female founder of the activist group was ousted by the other Ugandan members, in what appeared to be a coup, shortly after finishing her interviews. With a group name like that, who could have seen it coming...
The really sympathetic figures in the doc are the Ugandan mothers, their sick and dying children, and the Ugandan medical practitioners who are understaffed and constantly lacking in funds. I felt terrible for the Ugandan doctor, who seemed to like Renee despite everything, but who also was frustrated that he, as a real doctor, struggled to maintain his practice because of no money - while Renee, a person with zero qualifications or education, flourished because of all the wealth constantly flowing to her from her church members and followers in America.
The documentary concludes by delivering just the faintest glimmer of possible self-reflection on the part of Renee - "Am I actually selfish? Do I have a savior complex?" It was just a glimmer, but kind of nice actually - like I said, I grew up in that culture, and I could sense a familiar rooted Christian pride, smugness, and lack of awareness from Renee, her mother, and her lawyer, coming through the TV screen. So - every step forward counts I guess.
Is Renee a murderer? To be sure, if she had done what she did in America, she would 100% be in prison right now. But it's harder to categorize her crime in Uganda. Many of those children were probably going to die without her misguided interventions, and there is still no evidence that any of her mistakes actually led to a child's death. In my mind, it probably is likely that she killed at least some children out of sheer negligence, especially in the early years before she was forced to hire doctors. But there's just no way to know, and there probably never will be. There was a brilliant point made by Primah Kwagala, a Ugandan human rights attorney who represented mothers of dead children who were treated at Renee's NGO - for them, "justice" meant just having Renee acknowledge them and their suffering. To see and understand them as people, and not just points in some God-sanctioned game to save as many starving black babies as one can.
(Of course - Renee's final legal settlement, unexpectedly, provided some cash to the mothers, on the provision that Renee would be deemed "not liable" for any wrongdoing).
Jackie Kramlich, a whistleblower nurse who worked briefly at "Serving His Children" before quitting over her ethical concerns on Renee, sums up the whole doc nicely at the end by pointing out that this is not an "all or nothing" issue, that missionaries still do very amazing work all over the world (my own aunt included) - but that that doesn't mean people shouldn't be held accountable, for the sin of internalizing and perpetuating the strange "savior complex" that still seems to plague the Western mind after so many centuries.
I hope everyone else enjoys this documentary. I am looking forward to seeing all the balanced and healthy discussions that will be shortly forthcoming on social media platforms :)
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