This documentary was technically sound. Fast paced but thorough, a high footage to narration ratio, etc. The subject was also thought provoking which allowed more immersion. Essentially the documentary was about a pastor with a clean record being brutalized by border patrol agents in a "constitution free zone" for exercising his rights under the constitution. The inevitable argument will be made by the unwashed masses that he should have just "made things easier" and forfeit his rights and just go along. This of course if left unchecked will ultimately result in a police state. If no one ever exercises their rights, their rights will eventually be taken away. Even the concept of a "constitution free zone" in America which applies to Americans should be extremely troubling. The argument will also be made that "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear". This is also extremely flawed. For instance would you allow a government camera in your bathroom to watch you shower and use the toilet? Why not? Surely you're not doing anything illegal in there. I agree explicitly with his stance against government over reach and in actuality (as proved in the subsequent trial) he was well within his rights to do so. With all that said, there is a fine line between being a privacy advocate and being a troublemaker. The first half of the film was the meat and bones of the documentary, which focused on footage of the incident, trial footage, news reports and the pastor giving his thoughts on it all. The points he wanted to make were all covered in detail. The second half of the documentary became insufferable with the pastor beating us over the head with religion while also being extremely smug and in my opinion looking for trouble as he filmed encounter after encounter with more checkpoints. To be fair these incidents gave more validity to his argument as it showed the checkpoint officers allowing him to just leave without answering questions but his attitude had changed. He seemed less about making a point and more about feeding his own ego while also promoting himself and his church. The second half seemed hellbent on undermining the credibility of the first half. If it weren't for that I'd have given this a 6 or 7 rating but because of it I gave it a 5 which may be a little generous. This is a very important issue but I'm not sure this documentary is the best representation of it.
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