Director Brian Knappenberger’s Sundance documentary short Church and the Fourth Estate tells one man’s story–and the efforts to cover it up and silence him–of sexual abuse at the hands of his Scout leader when he was in middle school.
When young Adam Steed reported to authorities that his Scout leader was sexually abusing not only him, but a number of boys in their camp, they told him not to tell his parents and that they would take care of it. But Adam did tell, even as some local leaders in his small, conservative Idaho community did what they could keep the story from spreading. Steed’s story is just one among thousands of similar tales in the Scouting world, where sexual abuse allegations have grown in alarming numbers in recent years.
GUESTS
- Brian Knappenberger, documentary filmmaker
- Adam Steed, subject of the Sundance film Church and the Fourth Estate. He works with those Syrian refugees and those overcoming trauma.
