Machine Gun Preacher

This compelling documentary is even more intense and remarkable than the 2011 Hollywood studio movie of the same title starring Gerard Butler, both of which focus on the life and work of Sam Childers, a longtime hell-raiser and biker who became a born-again Christian and established a safe haven for Sudanese orphans in the midst of that ravaged country's civil war. Childers is no saint: a violent man with a hair-trigger temper, he appears to be as rough and hard on people as his nickname suggests. On the other hand, he's also a warrior dedicating his life to protecting as many innocent kids as he can in a living hell. As for the guns: yes, he has many and—as viewers will see here—isn't afraid to use them against oppressive warlords who torture, burn villages, rape, murder, and abduct boys in order to turn them into child soldiers. Serving up a powerful profile of a man doing his brand of good in a nightmarish situation, this is highly recommended. H, C, P (T. Keogh)