MinJungKim.com

This Film: Fascinating. Just totally fucking fascinating.

This documentary is both stark and intimate in revealling the creation, growth, corruption, and tragic end of of the Jim Jones cult known as the People’s Temple.

It’s amazing to me how a cult of personality can so enthrall people, overtake one’s will, and ultimately take the lives of so many people in a time & age of both bleak social/political climates and wild optimism re: a communistic & fully functionally lifestyle.

We’re first presented with the shiny rising of the People’s Temple via an early biography of the now infamous Jim Jones. Ferociously fascinated by religion and integration, Jones used to conduct funerals for neighborhood pets as a child and as a young and upcoming preacher clearly favored integration between African American communities into mainstream culture during a time on the cusp of segregation and revolution. Promoting physical & emotional discipline from drugs/avarice/sexual distraction, he appeared a posterchild of goodwill and social influence. Weighing heavy political influence and charismatic leadership with community and religious passion, it is easy to see why Jones was a force to be contended with and one that would be hard to resist.

This film features original photographs, footage, and interviews with several former members of the People’s Temple including a few who survived the Jonestown Massacre. All interviewed subjects lost family members from infants to mothers.

I give it a 5/5 pigtail rating though the subject matter may not seem very pig-taily.

Serious stuff but one definitley worth watching.

Official Writeup:

Documentaries
USA, 2006, 86 minutes

SHOWTIMES

Sat, Apr 29 / 6:15 / Kabuki / JONE29K
Sun, Apr 30 / 7:00 / Intersection / -2
Mon, May 01 / 7:00 / PFA / JONE01P
Tue, May 02 / 4:30 / Kabuki / JONE02K

CREDITS

dir Stanley Nelson

prod Stanley Nelson

cam Michael Chin

editor Lewis Erskine

mus Tom Phillips

source Firelight Media, 2600 Tenth Street, Ste. 636, 94710 Berkeley, CA 94710 FAX: 510-704-9201 EMAIL: marcia@firelightmedia.org

web http://www.firelightmedia.org

Veteran filmmaker Stanley Nelson traces the stunning rise and fall of Peoples Temple and its charismatic founder Jim Jones, who convinced hundreds of his followers in Jonestown, Guyana to participate in a mass “suicide” on November 18, 1978. The shocking tragedy made international headlines. More than 900 people, including more than 200 children, died in the utopian community they had tried to create in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Many of those who died were from the Bay Area as Jones held sway over a huge congregation in San Francisco from 1972 to 1977. Nelson interviews former members of Peoples Temple, including many whose family members perished in Jonestown. Initially, they felt they were part of an idealistic interracial community that could change the world. But they also reveal the fear, paranoia and beatings that were part of the traumatic experience. Jones became their father, friend, savior and god. The film includes remarkable archival footage of Jones discussing his childhood in Indiana and preaching in San Francisco, where he wielded considerable political clout due to his ability to get hundreds of his followers to appear at many local political events. There is also riveting footage of San Mateo Congressman Leo Ryan’s visit to Jonestown to investigate claims of people being held against their will and audiotape of Jones preaching, including his chilling exhortation to “die with dignity.” How was it possible for such an horrific event to take place? This disturbing portrait raises as many questions as it answers.

—Chuleenan Svetvilas

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 5:07 pm and is filed under General, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.