2025-03-12
AUSTIN - When a Belgian filmmaker moves to Texas and becomes a mother, she is confronted with a reality barely comprehensible in Europe: preschoolers trained to keep quiet in a dark closet, schools deploying armed teachers and children crawling behind their school desks with an escape plan in mind.
But do these measures actually protect them? Or are they raising a generation in an environment of constant fear? American society increasingly turns to weapons, caught in an endless battle against The Bad Guy - where children are the unintended victims.
The Bad Guy follows both parents and students, painting a portrait of a country stuck in a vicious cycle of extreme security measures. The film raises urgent questions that are becoming more relevant in Europe as well, as safety is increasingly used as a political bargaining tool.
Supported
€10,000 allocated on 30/09/2022ID
FPD/2022/1959Grant
DOCUMENTARY
- The Bad Guy, Docville (Première), 01/04/2025.
- The Bad Guy, VRT Canvas, 08/04/2025.
TV/RADIO
- 'The Bad Guy' - Louise Van Assche in De Afspraak, VRT MAX, 31/03/2025.
- Hoe Amerikaanse crèches en scholen zich voorbereiden op 'The bad guy', Voorproevers - VRT Max, 03/04/2025.
COUNTRY
- United States
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