I was interested to see this because I wondered what Jill Duggar Dillard would say about her childhood once she was out of the control of her parents. I wanted to know how close the reality show was, to the substance of what her childhood was like. That aspect of the documentary was very interesting.
She also spent some time talking, in a guarded way, about what it was like to have her victim experiences be exposed to the public. That was very sad to see as she clearly was very sad at the exposure of her private and painful experiences. However, I think it was valuable that people be able to see that this was a real thing that happened to her, and not something made up to get vengeance on the IBLP or to smear the Duggars. Again, I think it's important that what she said in the documentary was said when she is independent of her parents.
I also found it interesting to listen to the experiences of other ex-IBLP members, especially when they talked about the reality of what marriage was like, the extent of submission expected of women and girls to boys and men, and the way it turns the women and girls into perfect victims who can almost never escape.
If the documentary had remained focused on the issue of how the concept of authority and Christian doctrine was distorted and misused to victimize girls and women, or the other issue of the way the money was handled in the family (i.e. The income from the show), I think it would have done its major work. However, the documentary went farther and seemed quite political and ideological. Videos of pro-life protests pictured with ominous overtones and so on. At one point, a statement that the IBLP was training young men to "infiltrate" politics, and other things to that effect, worded to sound very creepy. But, if you break down what they are actually describing, it's basically US citizens getting into US politics and asking their fellow citizens to vote for them, or lobbying their elected officials, or engaging in perfectly legal protests. So, in fact, engaging in perfectly normal, constitutionally protected activity. This made me distrust the documentary. What else did they pick and choose to create a certain effect that is driven by ideology? In any case, it came across to me as very anti-Christian. Why weaken a perfectly good documentary by overreaching to push an ideological position?
The documentary talked about the IBLP (or ATI - apparently Gothard was very much into acronyms) having lots of money to put into redirecting politics and the culture, playing the long game so their way of thinking could become dominant. Considering that the documentary was done in a very professional, even slick way, and is being shown on Amazon, one of the most powerful platforms currently in existence, I couldn't help but find it ironic.
I'm glad to hear from Jill and I hope she thrives in her new life.