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'The Miseducation of Cameron Post' Review - Warning: Contains Spoilers

An Eye-Opening Journey into the World of Conversion Camps and the Detrimental Psychological Harm That Is Caused by Them

By Dee SimonePublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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I recently saw this film and was pleasantly surprised at its fearlessness with exposing the harmful teachings of some Christian denominations who believe homosexuality is a sin. The film pays careful attention to each of its characters, with protagonist Cameron Post being the central observer to what is happening to those around her and herself.

Cameron is a teenager who was adopted as a child because her parents were killed in a car crash. Her adoptive parents are deeply religious and are not aware that Cameron is gay until she is found having sex in the backseat of a car with the prom queen who she knows from bible studies class. This then leads to them sending Cameron to a religious conversion camp named "God's Promise," where the majority of the film is set.

The film sets the tone of the story quickly with its beginning scenes based on the events prior to Cameron being sent to the conversion camp, but it is clear its focus is to get straight to the nitty-gritty of the conversion camp rather than Cameron's backstory. The opening scenes intrigue us by presenting the pastor of Cameron's bible study class giving a speech on how the teenage class are "vulnerable to sin at their age" and following on from this there is little dialogue but intimate scenes of interaction between Cameron and the prom queen, Coley, leading up to her being sent to "God's Promise." Although these opening scenes help the viewer to familiarise themselves with Cameron, I felt there was room for more character development; for example, we could have been told more about her relationship with her boyfriend and how this would have been a difficult facade for her, or how her parents' death affected her. Instead we just hear her say later on in the movie that her parents are dead when she is asked by the camp counsellor to think about her parents' influence.

At the camp itself we are introduced to a variety of personalities, including other residents and the leaders of the camp. The film does an excellent job of making the audience aware of how in denial certain characters are—for example, Cameron is told by another resident that Reverend Rick used to participate in the "sin" of same-sex attraction, but he has now successfully been put on the "right" path and has a wife. But the repression of his true sexuality is made obvious by how he over-compensates and pretends that he is perfectly happy and everything is going well in his life.

Other characters, such as Erin, react to the teachings of the camp in similar ways—although Erin is a lesbian, she has been at the camp a while and tells Cameron she has a crush on one of the boys, and it is painfully obvious to the audience she is lying to herself. The harmful effects of this type of repression on a young adult's mental health are presented well through how these characters are affected—however, the film goes a brave step further in exposing the shocking nature of these camps when one of the residents, Jamie, has a nervous breakdown and attempts suicide after being forced to stay at the camp when he was meant to be leaving. The troubling and repetitive scenes of him desperately and angrily quoting scripture whilst becoming more hysterical sparked a sense of great unease in the cinema and I felt like I wanted to reach out and save this troubled character from the claws of 'God's Promise.'

Overall, I felt that The Miseducation of Cameron Post offers a look at the world of Christian conversion camps through the experiences of the characters surrounding Cameron, possibly more so than Cameron herself. In many ways, there is more told of Cameron's thoughts through scenes with non-dialogue, as through the silence in these scenes we can hear the cogs ticking away in Cameron's brain as she recognises the toxic aim of the conversion camp—to make perfectly good people feel like they're doing something evil just by being themselves.

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About the Creator

Dee Simone

I like to write, create, pet kitties, listen to owls, talk about life, watch indie films, laugh, make new friends 😊🐌🌻💋👾🧠⚡️🪐

✍️ www.medium.com/indiefilmsdee

📷 www.instagram.com/indiefilmsdee

🐦 www.twitter.com/indiefilmsdee

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