Butt-Ugly Violence

Comments (0) By Amanda McCorquodale Thursday, Feb 24 2011

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Consider this a public service announcement: Before you buy tickets for The Redemption of General Butt Naked, which screens on Monday as part of Miami International Film Festival, know what you’re getting into. Although it shares the same name as your senior prank — the one in which you streaked through the lunchroom smeared in war paint carrying a rubber chicken outfitted with a rifle scope — the film is a lot more nefarious. Think warlords conducting human sacrifices in which they filet and eat the hearts of children. And worse news: It’s a true story. The documentary follows Joshua Milton Blahyi, a Liberian warlord-turned-preacher. He earned his nom de guerre, General Butt Naked, because he led his troops while only wearing shoes and a gun. He’s since claimed that the Devil told him nudity protected him from bullets. Such theories may have something to do with his lifestyle, which consisted of boozing and drugging, sacrificing a village kid, drinking his or her blood, and then fighting a battle. He also had a unit of unclothed child soldiers known as the Butt Naked Brigade. General Butt Naked murdered thousands, before Jesus appeared to him in 1996. The filmmakers track Blahyi as he testifies before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and seeks personal forgiveness from his victims and their families.
Mon., March 7, 9:30 p.m., 2011