Our Winner for Best Insulting Picture

At the Exploiting Africa Academy Awards is... Machine Gun Preacher.

The strange contrast between evil violent African males with the saintly violent white male, who frequently boasts "I am saving African children," was apparently a clincher for our voting audience.

If you want to read more, the most (very) detailed blog post is by Brett Keller (shorter version in Foreign Policy.) Keller concludes that the real Machine Gun Preacher is either a dangerous liar or a dangerous lunatic, or most likely both.  Tales from the Hood is less favorable. Keller also wrote a follow-up piece, based in part on some disturbing new material about alleged neglect at the orphanage the MGP founded.

Fortunately for the cause of discouraging Insulting and Exploitative Pictures about Africa, MGP only earned $1.1. million box office worldwide back on its production budget of $30 million. It was also widely panned by the conventional movie critics.

PS In the Aid Watch spirit of representing dissenting opinions: Chris Blattman presents the case that MGP may still have been useful to call attention to the horrific situation of the victims of the Lord's Resistance Army.