Louis Theroux: The Most Hated Family in America

Louis Theroux: The Most Hated Family in America (2007) is a BBC documentary you can watch online on iFILM. British journalist Louis Theroux spends weeks living alongside the Phelps clan of Topeka, Kansas — the family at the core of the Westboro Baptist Church.

The group built its notoriety on picket signs spewing anti-gay slogans and on showing up to protest at the burials of fallen American soldiers. To the Phelps, every disaster on earth is divine retribution. Theroux doesn't argue or lecture. He simply stays close, asks quiet, awkward questions, and lets the camera catch what hides behind the rehearsed chants — above all in the children raised inside it.

On screen are church founder Fred Phelps, his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, and a young Megan Phelps-Roper, who would later break away in a much-publicized exit. Director Geoffrey O'Connor shapes something closer to cold anthropology than a takedown. Bracing viewing for anyone who likes patient documentary work that refuses easy answers. Stream The Most Hated Family in America (2007) online on iFILM.