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.

 

Louise Van Assche

Louise Van Assche is a documentary filmmaker who lives and works in Austin, Texas.
Louise Van Assche

Kwinten Gernay

Kwinten Gernay is a Belgian filmmaker and editor.
Kwinten Gernay
€10,000 allocated on 30/09/2022
ID
FPD/2022/1959

DOCUMENTARY

  • The Bad Guy, Docville (Première), 01/04/2025.
  • The Bad Guy, VRT Canvas, 08/04/2025. 

TV/RADIO

COUNTRY

  • United States