Leavers’ Feedback on the DocuSeries – Escaping Utopia

Opinion piece: Liz Gregory.

(Thoughts, opinions and views expressed here belong to Liz Gregory and may or may not represent the views of all leavers, current members or the Trust).

I have spoken to a lot of leavers since the Escaping Utopia DocuSeries went to air, and the vast majority were overwhelmed by the accuracy and the brilliant way that their lives were portrayed.

A week after the series aired, there were a few Gloriavale leavers having lunch at our house, and they were having a great discussion about the film. They couldn’t believe how amazing the reconstructed scenes were. I asked if I could capture their comments on camera and I passed them on to the film crew as encouragement.

Here were a few of their random, unrehearsed thoughts:

John Ready:

I was honestly shocked  at how good it was. At times I was like, I’ve only been away from GV only six years and I can’t remember who that person is in GV, And my wife said “They’re actors”. I said, “Are they?” They’re nailing it so well. I don’t know how they would have conveyed to the actors how they got it so well. It was unnerving actually. The accuracy of it was mind blowing, Like she had lived there. I thought they did a really good job on conveying the SS (Servants and Shepherds) meeting and what’s going on inside, to the person internally. Even though it may not happen like that externally, it really conveys that high pressure, a lot coming at you. Walking through a minefield. Say one things and someone is going to jump down your throat. It felt way too real. It was really well done. It’s amazing how many people I’ve talked to had exactly the same thoughts about the exact the same scenes. It was uncanny how it provoked exactly the same response in leavers and they articulated it exactly the same, That’s crazy.  

Virginia Courage: I was so impressed, I felt like they had actually got into the psyche into how people feel. How threatened, how hopeless, how overwhelmed. You can feel completely overwhelmed every though you’re surrounded by 600 people. The details were amazing, the names on the cutlery containers, the coloured tape.

PR: It was all so authentic. The painted backdrops, the blue curtains, and then the while plastic spread containers with the vitamin tablets

Dave Courage: It  was awesome. It was like, they got it, they nailed it. Yes there was too much trauma to watch some of it. 

John re India. What’s weird was you watch the first part and you get a sense for how it’s going. And then you come back to the second part and you’re like, “Can I take this?”. But I made it through all three. The third part made me feel guilty – because you forget about people. You forget their situation and you get carried away with your own things and then it gets brought back to you. It’s really hard and you have guilt. 

David: (re India) It was … I know it, hearing it again was bringing it back, the plight those women are in. 

John. Yes the plight of the woman. There are two things going on at the same time. In this position they kind of don’t know how bad it is. Unfortunately it comes back to a place that they’re not aware of how good God is and there’s a concept that somehow we’ve just got to suffer. If I’m suffering I’m in the right place and that’s a denial of how good God is. It doesn’t mean we don’t suffer, but there are answers and ways through. 

David: It almost gives the thought that they’ve given up hope and they only hope they have left to them is that the Lord is going to come back – which is actually the equivalent to you being dead inside. If you can compare that to the state of mind that someone would be in if they were going to commit suicide. It’s very much the same thing ‘The Lord’s going to come back. It will be alright. If I die, I die.” That’s the whole mindset those people can be in.

Mother with young children: You know that thing that happened to Rosanna, where she and her children were moved around to hide from our husbands, that kind of thing happened to me, and her (points to someone else) and then mentions another name. 

Another mother: Wow even Howard’s hands looked like his when he pulled the girl onto his lap

Another Father: I jumped when I saw the back of Hopeful Christian in the SS Meeting. It looked like him and they even had his hearing aids.

General Feedback:

Liz says: I have spoken to countless leavers who said it was brilliant, accurate, honest and extremely well done. They know the content was true, as many of them have experienced similar situations or were witnesses to various events depicted. Most did not feel the film was sensational, but it captured the routine and normal ways the community operated. They felt the struck a good balance (although there wasn’t much shown of the physical abuse, or neglect side of life – which was very much part of the culture). It showed the turmoil and horror inside the victim’s mind, and not so much the cold, calculating and unempathetic ways they were treated by those in authority. (This was seen clearly in the Employment Court where Isaac Pilgrim was visibly moved by his experience in a Servants and Shepherd’s meeting. He described being psychologically destroyed. But his father, a Shepherd, responded in a mocking or condescending manner that Isaac was exaggerating and it wasn’t like that at all.) When you are the perpetrator of cruelty, you can become immune to it and you don’t even stop to think what it must be like for the people you are chewing up and spitting out.

There was nothing to be gained by making these stories sensational. They are what they are are and they need to stand on the veracity of the claims made. Many leavers have commented that many issues were understated – but it’s impossible to cover the breadth and depth of the cruel things that have occurred in Gloriavale.

We watched the doco with a house full of leavers, and we know it rang true, because of the physical reactions we noticed when there were triggering scenes. You don’t make that stuff up. 

Participants Feedback

For all nine people who participated and shared their stories, they were very impressed with the production. Each one of them watched the doco prior to the release, and was able to suggest edits and make corrections as necessary. Each person was extremely happy with the way they were represented. All credit to the film crew who listened, understood the complexities and pulled off what is a difficult task. Like a leaver said, “You nailed it.”

Feedback inside Gloriavale

Many people have watched it inside Gloriavale (in a quiet, secret space by themselves or one or two others). Most know it’s true. Some didn’t know about elements of their past, but it makes sense. Some have started asking questions of their family members, and that’s a good thing. On the whole we have heard some very encouraging things from inside Gloriavale. Some first generationers are finally being honest with family members about their knowledge of things that happened. Some are brave enough to even say it was wrong. Some even passed on lovely comments to people who participated in the film. How affirming is that. 

For some it will be these pieces of information that give them the mental freedom to pack their bags. 

Of course there are also the people inside who are saying, “That was lies”, but the onus is on them to be more specific. Which bit was lies? And are you willing to hear that it might not have been lies? 

One of the Gloriavale Servants told a reporter that, “This will soon blow over. We’ve been here before, and it always blows over…”

Criticisms

Here are the “errors” in production that have been shared with us:

1. The pink apron shouldn’t have been worn in the laundry
2. The boys hair could have been combed over a bit more
3. The girls didn’t quite look exhausted enough
4. They shouldn’t have shown blue dresses in the “hot and heavy scene” as they hadn’t transitioned into the blue adult clothing at that stage. It would have been more accurate to show them in the other floral dresses. (To the participants’ defense, they watched the doco before it aired to look for any errors, but many of them are too young to have been aware of the time-frames. I also didn’t connect the dots)
5. The hot and heavy scene didn’t show other people around the edges who were not participating, and that it wasn’t common for people to have their tops removed and to go “all the way”. (We acknowledge not everyone participated in the way shown).

I am sure there are other criticisms, but that’s all that’s come to my ears. I think that’s pretty incredible for a three-hour long docuseries.

Well done to the production crew and the actors who participated in the film. You did yourselves proud and you clearly got into character in ways that was unnerving for the people who have left.

Watch the Trailer of Escaping Utopia below: