3 Questions w/ director Dylan Edward Allen
1. What motivated you to make Scouts?
I’ve wanted to make this movie since I became aware that our Scoutmaster was preying on Scouts in our troop and no one was doing anything about it. I quit the Scouts at age 15 in protest to the abuse taking place in my troop. In 2019 my fellow troop member John F. Hobbs publicly disclosed his abuse for the first time after being inspired to do so because of another victim, Danny Shore, taking his own life. After hearing John’s story, which included his disclosure to and subsequent shunning by the Scouts, I was all in to make a film about the abuse in the Scouts.
2. What issue or topics does your film touch on?
The main issue our film touches on is the psychology around child sexual abuse and the cover ups that enable predators.
The primary core questions the film aims to pose and answer are:
How do child predators groom not only the victim but the family and the community to be able to commit their crimes?
The families that this involves are good, normal families. So much of this abuse takes place in close proximity to the family. In Heath’s case, inside his own home. How is that able to happen?
What did the Boy Scouts do to allow abuse in their organization? Did they profit while they were hiding child abuse from the world?
The overriding theme and ultimate question of the project is:
How can a man control the mind of a boy to do their bidding, even when it’s against their own self-interest? In Heath’s case murder. In Danny’s case soliciting other boys for his abuser and taking his own life. In John’s case working for his abuser at the Scouts, inviting him to his wedding and defending him.
I feel that in many ways we as a society are still in the dark ages when it comes to understanding the psychological components of child abuse. The effects of abuse are severe and life long.
Raising the awareness for the stages of grooming and abuse and the subsequent effects is important. Not only for the victims, but for children everywhere.
3. How will your film stand out as unique?
Our film is unique for several reasons.
Since I was actually present while this issue was taking place in our troop, I’m able to bring a unique level of understanding, authenticity and sheer emotional depth to the project that isn’t possible from someone who’s coming in as a third party filmmaker.
I went out of my way to interview people with an understanding of the psychological elements – the psychologists, therapists, wives, mothers, friends and attorneys in addition to the core survivors. Each of these people brings a very specific and unique perspective to the subject matter.
The filmmaking. Growing up, our Scoutmaster’s actions and the lack of awareness in our community felt like a horror movie to me. I made sure to film it that way: from the aspect ratio, the work with the cinematographers Marcus Guider and Cecil Searcy on the lighting, framing and composition, to the focus on the predators in the edit.