A powerful film documenting Christian re-education camps where evangelical parents send their gay children to be tortured and abused in the hopes of making them straight premieres on Showtime tonight.

The film shines a harsh light on Christian behavioral modification programs used on gay kids and other children displaying “undesirable” behaviors.

Some evangelical parents in the U.S. are sending their children overseas to unregulated boarding schools where children are tortured and abused, often in an attempt to change their sexual orientation.

The film chronicles the controversial Escuela Caribe, a now defunct Christian behavior-modification program in the Dominican Republic for “troubled” U.S. teenagers.

“Kidnapped For Christ” is a documentary which follows a young evangelical filmmaker who is granted unprecedented access to a Christian boarding school in the Dominican Republic for troubled US teens that bills itself as a rehabilitation center. There she discovers the shocking secrets of the behavior modification program that is being forced upon students who have been kidnapped with their parents’ permission, and she makes it her mission to free a young man who will change her life.

The compelling documentary follows the experiences of several American teenagers after they were kidnapped from their homes and shipped to Evangelical Reform schools located in the Dominican Republic. Many of these teenagers’ parents discover their children are either gay or experience same-sex attraction, and are sent to “therapeutic Christian boarding school[s]” in order to “transform into healthy Christian adults” in an environment outside of U.S. law.

The documentary has been awarded the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2014 SlamDance Film Festival, and also named the Special Jury Award Winner at the 2014 Nashville Film Festival.

In December 2011, Escuela Caribe, the reform school featured in the documentary, was closed down due to a successful internet campaign by alumni to expose its 40 year history of child abuse.

Kidnapped for Christ premieres on Showtime tonight night at 7:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 6:30, Central time.