Behind the Curve

What a lovely film that captures a sub-section of our population that believes the earth is flat. Oh the implications this mindset can have on our entire society!

I’m not a flat earther but this film gave me a lot of sympathy for the community and their motives. High production value film. It’ll help you talk to flat earthers in a more efficient way.

I admit I have relegated the Flat Earth society to the fringes of an already absurd world of conspiracy theorists, but director Daniel J. Clark forces his audience to confront an even more uncomfortable characteristic of Flat Earthers: their humanity. The obvious romantic tension between two leaders of the movement, Mark Seargent and Patricia Steere, play throughout the film in an all too relatable way. From missed opportunity after missed opportunity — to uncomfortable back peddling after a live-stream viewer calls them an obvious couple. The interviews with Mark’s mother show the indulgent and unconditional love we all hope for from our own moms. But the film’s most powerful moments come from its characters trying to understand the basic human drive that allows us to believe or disbelieve things regardless of the evidence; our need to belong. We profoundly, deeply need to belong, and the desire to be part of the “right club” — the one that knows something others don’t — has an incredible power to divide us. It becomes uncomfortably obvious by the end of the film that what the flat earthers have found, even more than NASA conspiracies and CIA coverups, is a group of people that affirms and accepts them as they are. And no amount of condescension or evidence will be enough to make them give that up.

When I first decided to watch this documentary, I'd assumed it would be all ridicule, since it can actually be hard not to ridicule people with ridiculous ideas. That still could have been fun, but it's pretty easy to find content like that on Youtube. Instead, it was a fairly balanced look at the lives of several flat earthers. It also did reveal some information that prominent flat earthers were unwilling to reveal publically regarding failed experiments, which I was grateful for, mainly to highlight the way that they approach evidence. There were also moments that neared self-reflection, and I found it more interesting than I'd expected. It might have been interesting if they'd talked to others on Youtube that operated as pushback against Youtube flat earthers, if only to compare it to what the experts thought the best way to prevent anti-scientific attitudes from growing, but I'm pretty sure that broadcasting Red's face violates the Geneva Conventions, so I understand why they didn't.

It's clear the filmmakers don't believe the Earth is flat and don't expect you to believe the Earth is flat, but Behind the Curve does a really fantastic job of highlighting Flat Earthers as human beings who we can empathize with and relate to. Really fascinating insight into the Flat Earth Movement without encouraging the viewer to believe in the conspiracy.

It's easy to point and laugh at the faceless people who believe something like the earth being flat, but the film brings you into the lives of Flat Earthers to show them as people with fears, hopes, relationships, and, yes, beliefs. After watching, you might still think of Flat Earthers as "people with crazy beliefs," but it's almost impossible to simply write them off as "crazies." At the same time, the film features experts who not only refute those beliefs, but also seek to understand and explain how Flat Earthers came to believe them. It feels incredibly timely as the US faces terrifying levels of political partisanship and disagreement about the very facts of the world. I walked away with new empathy for a group of people who passionately believe in something wildly different than I do, as well as insight into how to open a meaningful conversation with them. Highly recommended.

This documentary does a great job giving us an unbised look into the world of "Flat Earthers". When I first heard about this I was like "What?! How can anyone believe the Earth is flat?!" And while I still firmly believe the Earth is round, I no longer think of these people as "crazy".