Review of Underground Reality: Vietnam
Over the long weekend, I took some time to watch VOM’s newest film, Underground Reality: Vietnam. For those of you who haven’t heard anything about this film, the premise is that VOM took eight teenagers overseas to meet with persecuted Christians in Vietnam. The kid’s activities and reactions throughout the entire trip were filmed and then edited down to four 30 minute episodes. The resulting product is the most touching “reality show” I have ever seen.
I’ll admit that I might be a little biased. I had the opportunity to meet with some of these teens before they went to Vietnam, and when you have met someone face-to-face it usually increases the amount of emotional interest you have vested in them. However, I truly believe that this trip drastically altered these kid’s perspectives, and the internal change each of them underwent is fairly evident in the video.
Episode one begins by introducing each of the teens. Footage was shot at each of their homes and aims to depict what their day-to-day lives are like. The teens each share their interests and what some of their presuppositions are going into the trip. They then all meet each other in Bartlesville, OK where VOM is headquartered, and they meet with Tom White who talks to them about persecution in Vietnam. We then follow the teens through airport terminals and across the globe as they scramble to catch flights into Vietnam. After arriving, the kids get a valuable lesson on the Vietnam War and also get a small taste of what it’s like to live under the Communist regime that has run the country since the war ended.
In episode two, the teens interview Pastor Quang, a Vietnamese pastor who has been jailed for his faith many times and seen his church destroyed. They then visit a Christian camp where students often travel for days to attend. While at the camp, they bond with Christian Vietnamese kids who are around their age. One particularly touching scene depicts Taani, a sixteen-year-old from Australia, in tears as she learns about the persecution a girl her age has gone through as a result of her faith.
In the third episode, the teens are forced to leave the Christian camp early when the police learn that they are there without permission from the government. They also visit a Bible School where students must lay low for four years to study God’s word, and the teens reflect on the amount of dedication each of them shows. Finally DJ, a teen from Oklahoma, learns a valuable lesson from a Vietnamese pastor on not fighting back.
Episode four follows the teens through the streets of Saigon as they carry backpacks full of Bibles to a drop point. Some of the teens also make a dangerous journey to an underground church service in the Central Highlands where they drop off Bibles and worship with Christians, only to be forced to flee when the police arrive. The teens ask themselves some hard questions about how they would respond to persecution, and they all come out with a desire to share the stories of their newfound friends.
Underground Reality: Vietnam is not a reality show which depicts the petty disagreements and situational ironies which exist in middle-class America. Instead of entertaining us with the reality of eight very different teenagers forced to coexist, this trip changed these kids by introducing them to the reality of suffering for Christians in Vietnam. If you are even vaguely disillusioned about being a Christian in a restricted or hostile nation, it will change you as well.
To learn more about the teens and their journey, visit www.undergroundreality.com. The blog archives and the reality news are particularly interesting. If you’d like to purchase Underground Reality: Vietnam you can do so here.