Louis Theroux: America's Most Hated Family in Crisis (2011) on Netflix
NR20111hDocumentary
Four years after his first visit, Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, and the Westboro Baptist Church. The Phelps family still pickets, but defections have shaken the congregation.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.5/102,895 votes
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Plot summary
Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, four years after his first documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, prompted by an email from a young member he had interviewed who has since left the congregation and been disfellowshipped. The church, led by Fred Phelps and made up largely of his relatives, meets at Phelps's home and holds that God hates homosexuals, regarding national tragedies as punishment for tolerance of gay people. Its members picket military funerals and other gatherings with anti-gay placards, drawing counter-protests and litigation, including the Supreme Court case Snyder v. Phelps. Theroux spends a week in Topeka and talks with members including Shirley Phelps-Roper, encountering an ambivalent attitude toward the documentary he made four years earlier.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Louis Theroux: America's Most Hated Family in Crisis (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The US Supreme Court case Snyder v. Phelps followed Westboro Baptist Church being sued over distress caused by its picketing of a US Marine's funeral in Iraq; the case formed the background to the follow-up documentary.
- Louis Theroux's return to Topeka after four years was prompted by an email from a young member of the church he had interviewed previously, who had since left and been disfellowshipped.
- In 1998 Phelps received criticism when he repeatedly exclaimed "Matt is in hell" during the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a man murdered for being homosexual.
- Protests by Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church resulted in litigation, and President George W. Bush signed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act into law on Memorial Day in May 2006.
