- December 8, 2006 Unanswered questions abound in 'Jonestown', by Chris Kaltenbach, Sun Movie Critic, baltimoresun.com
...Chilling doesn't begin to describe Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, which uses archival footage and new interviews to chronicle events leading up to the horrible day in November 1978 when 909 people committed suicide in a Guyanese jungle at the behest of a charismatic madman named Jim Jones...
...Jonestown includes video and audio from that fateful day, and the sound of young children crying as their parents force poison down their throats will reverberate long after the film is over.
- November 22, 2006 Cult classic, by Jim Emerson, Editor, RogerEbert.com
"Nobody joins a cult," says a woman at the very beginning of Stanley Nelson's documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple."...
..."Jonestown" is a thoroughly conventional documentary -- archival footage, images and voice recordings alternating with talking head interviews. (It was funded by PBS' "American Experience" series.) But this familiar format also emphasizes the movie's universality. For while it's about a particular, peculiar phenomenon, and a shattering, generation-defining tragedy of its time (particularly those many friends and relatives in the San Francisco Bay area), the madness depicted here is not limited to Jim Jones...
- November 21, 2006 Inside Jonestown, CNN, Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
...JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: ...Reverend Jim Jones and his cult of death...
...Were they the victims of mass murder or mass suicide? A new documentary tries to answer that question. It's a fascinating film -- in a moment, my interview with the filmmaker and Jim Jones Jr...
...ROBERTS: The new documentary, "Jonestown: The Life and Death Of Peoples Temple," opened recently, and it is a riveting film, to say the least. It includes interviews with survivors and relatives of some of the victims, as you saw...
- November 18, 2006 Adhere to leader's message, not the leader, by the Rev. Bill McGill, The Journal Gazette
Today marks the 28th observance of an incident that will live in spiritual infamy.
Unfortunately, it would appear that the contemporary church has learned precious little from the sins of the past. Nearly three decades have passed since more than 900 people, mostly black, died in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, where they were living under the poisonous power of the Rev. Jim Jones...
- November 17, 2006 The Jonestown Tragedy Had Liberal Roots, by Michael M. Bates via RenewAmerica
This week marks the deaths of 913 people, including 276 children, in the Guyanan jungle. Most of them died by their own hand, voluntarily drinking a cyanide-laced grape punch (not Kool Aid, contrary to the idiomatic expression). The ones who wouldn't kill themselves were shot. Babies had the lethal concoction forced into their mouths with syringes.
Orchestrating the 1978 holocaust was "Reverend" Jim Jones, founder of the People's Temple...
...Mayor George Moscone appointed him to the city's housing authority. Willie Brown, who later served as speaker of the California Assembly, in 1976 introduced the white Jones as a combination Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Chairman Mao...
...When things got too hot in San Francisco, Jones moved his operation to Guyana. He brought with him written accolades from numerous politicians...
- November 17, 2006 Jim Jones Jr., by Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle, Austin, Texas
on 'The Life and Death of People's Temple'
...American history...
...mass suicide of 909 members of Jim Jones' People's Temple on Nov. 18, 1978 - via a cyanide-laced Kool-Aid knockoff...
...Documentarian Stanley Nelson's new film on the subject, Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple, manages to strip away nearly 30 years' worth of shadowy misinformation...
...The Chronicle recently spoke to Jones Jr...
...Jim Jones Jr.: ...So why were all these African-Americans following this Caucasian? He must have presented something to them to make him trust them. And I think Stanley's film shows this functional world of Jim Jones and the People's Temple...Let me tell you this: When my wife – who I've known for 22 years and been married to for 19 years – when she watched this film, she said, "Jimmy, I finally understand Jonestown."
- November 13, 2006 Real to Reel: Jonestown Massacre - The Daily Nightly - MSNBC.com
...third floor of 30 Rockefeller, the home of Nightly News, you can't help but see the large, glass display case that fills the center of the foyer.
Inside are numerous photos, pages of notes, a flak jacket, cameras, a helmet and other items that once belonged to NBC correspondents, cameramen and crew -- those who lost their lives while covering the news.
Among these items is a memorial for cameraman Bob Brown, 36, and Correspondent Don Harris, 42 -- both of whom were murder victims in Jonestown, Guyana, on Nov. 18, 1978.
Those old enough to remember...two NBC staffers were gunned down along with California Congressman Leo Ryan. Brown and Harris were covering Ryan's trip to Jonestown to investigate troubling reports from the "People's Temple." They were killed on an airstrip as they were about to leave and just hours before 900 residents of Jonestown drank cyanide-laced fruit punch...
- November 12, 2006 Filmmaker let the survivors tell 'Peoples' story, By Jennifer Modenessi, Contra Costa Times, California
...Nelson, director of the critically-acclaimed feature-length documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," says it was a radio program featuring surviving Temple members that made him want to address those questions and others he had about the tragedy...
..."They talked about not joining the cult but joining something that had such high ideals for what, I thought, were the right reasons. I just became fascinated by it."...
sifting through Temple ephemera -- much of it released by the U.S. government through the Freedom of Information Act. He was moved by what he saw.
"One of the first things I did was to see pictures of the people," Nelson said. "There were so many kinds of elderly African-American people, not the kind of people you would think would join any kind of cult at all," Nelson said. "I was wondering ... why would they join this thing?"...
...He also interviewed people such as Jones' adopted son, Jim Jones Jr...
..."Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" (now playing at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley)
- Movie Review November 10, 2006 Jonestown: a stunner, Shawn Levy, The Oregonian, Oregon
It's possible that some people use the phrase "drink the Kool-Aid" without knowing that it alludes to a ghastly tragedy that occurred in November 1978, when Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of a Bay Area religious cult called the Peoples Temple, forced more than 900 of his followers to drink cyanide-laced fruit punch and die in their encampment in the South American country of Guyana.
That appalling event is the climax of "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," a riveting and impeccably researched documentary by Stanley Nelson...
- November 6, 2006 A time to heal... The Guyana Memorial Wall - by Steven Larkin, Westside Gazette, Florida
On Nov. 18, 1978, an inexplicable act of evil occurred in the remote jungles of Guyana, South America resulting in the deaths of 913 people, including 276 children, 40 of them infants.
Dr. Jynona Norwood lost 27 members of her family, including her mother at the Jonestown massacre. Norwood is spearheading the drive to memorialize the victims with survivors, former Mayor Elihu Harris, former Human Rights Commissioner Rev. Eugene Lumpkin, and NAACP President Dr. Amos Brown, to erect a memorial wall dedicated to the innocent people who lost their lives in Guyana...
...Dr. Jynona Norwood...You may also visit her web site at (www.jones-town.org)
- Movie Review November 3, 2006 Documentary offers rare film of Jim Jones, G. Allen Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer, San Francisco Chronicle, California (Photo of Jim Jones included.)
...One of the most amazing elements of Stanley Nelson's riveting new documentary about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple is just how much film footage and audio had been recorded of this cult.
Jones positioned himself as a national figure -- and certainly a prominent San Franciscan, having helped George Moscone become mayor ... much of it never before seen publicly, some of it apparently only recently declassified by the CIA -- exists makes "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple" one of the year's most important documentaries, a real must-see...
...Advisory: This film contains disturbing scenes of dead bodies and strong language.
- November 3, 2006 Audio Forum: "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple" - Host: Dave Iverson - KQED
Guests:
- Jim Jones, Jr., son of Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones and former member of the group
- Marshall Kilduff, editorial writer at the San Francisco Chronicle and author of "Suicide Cult: The Inside Story of the Peoples Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana"
- Stanley Nelson, documentary filmmaker whose film "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" opens in the Bay Area today
- November 1, 2006 The hard legacy of Jonestown - The View from the Bay, abc7news.com, KGO-TV San Francisco, California
What's it like to bear the name, "Jim Jones Jr.?" What happened at Jonestown was a national tragedy. Now the son shares how he endures the legacy of his father...
...Have you ever wondered what happened to those who survived?...
...Jim Jones Jr., and Stanley Nelson, the director Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple, visited The View from the Bay to talk with Spencer and Leigh...
- Movie Review November 1, 2006 Rev. Death - by Kelly Vance, East Bay Express, San Francisco, California (Profanity included.)
...A new documentary about populist preacher Jim Jones is a fascinating portrait of folly and power...
...Nelson's thought-provoking documentary investigation into the life and times of preacher Jim Jones raises a fistful of public policy questions that are still knocking around today, almost thirty years after Jones led his San Francisco Peoples Temple followers to the Promised Land and then killed them with poisoned...
- Movie Review October 28, 2006 Filmmaker finds heart, rationale behind tragedy of Jonestown - Pam Grady, Special to The Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, California
The cataclysm of Nov. 18, 1978, happened thousands of miles away in the jungle of Guyana, but it struck at the heart of San Francisco...
...More than 900 men, women and children died that day in Jonestown...
...Stanley Nelson's compelling new documentary, "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," reclaims that history and restores perspective that was lost in the horror of that day. (The film opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.)...
...Those answers Nelson sought to why people followed Jones and why they stuck with him, he found through making "Jonestown."...
- Movie Review October 27, 2006 'Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple' - By Kenneth Turan, Times Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, California
A documentary on the mass murder-suicide, with interviews of its few survivors, is calm, thorough and utterly harrowing.
RECOMMENDED
..."Nobody joins a cult, nobody joins something they think is going to hurt them," one person says, and Jones' adopted son and namesake adds, "Everything I tell you about Jim Jones is a paradox - having this vision to change the world but having this whole undercurrent of dysfunction."...
- October 25, 2006 Doc org lock noms, by Dave McNary, Variety
The Intl. Documentary Assn. has announced 24 finalists in four catgeories for its 22nd Annual Distringuished Documentary Achievement Awards...
...Winners will be honored Dec. 8...
...IDA will also present the ABC News VideoSource Award to the filmmaker whose work best utilizes TV news footage. The seven nominated films are..."Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple,"...
- Movie Review October 23, 2006 You Can't Make This Stuff Up: A Documentary Index - New York Magazine
The final word on self-declared prophet Jim Jones, Stanley Nelson's film mixes startling archival footage and moving interviews with survivors...
...Most Unbelievable True Thing
Footage taken on the day of the mass suicide, as four people were shot dead in the middle of a politician's visit.
Release Date: October 20
- Movie Review October 23, 2006 A return to 'Jonestown' - Susan King, calendarlive.com, Los Angeles Times, California
...So Nelson was surprised at how "sane" the former members sounded on the radio. "Their description of Peoples Temple was so different from what I knew," he says....
...Nelson's documentary, "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," which opens Friday in L.A., explores the history of the charismatic Jones ... to building an organization that advocated racial equality while providing food, clothing and shelter to the congregation and others....
...Besides interviews with surviving members of the organization - several of whom lost their wives and children on Nov. 18, 1978 - including Jones' adopted African American son, Jim Jones Jr., the documentary also features rare archival footage and audio material...
- Movie Review October 20, 2006 Kool-Aid, Craziness and Utopian Yearning - by Stephen Holden, New York Times
The scariest thing about "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" is that so many of the followers of Jim Jones, the demented demagogue who led them to commit mass suicide, appear to have been intelligent, idealistic, life-loving people...
...Growing up poor in Indiana, Mr. Jones was sensitive to the plight of African-Americans, and preached racial equality. His son Jim Jones Jr., who appears in the film, boasts of being the first black child adopted by a Caucasian in the state of Indiana...
...The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
...Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson...At the Quad Cinema...Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated.
- Movie October 20, 2006 'Jonestown': Portrait of a Disturbed Cult Leader - by Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR
(The link above includes audio excerpts from the new movie.)
...Now a new documentary, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, tells the story of the San Francisco-based cult.
The film includes interviews with former members of Peoples Temple and relatives of the group's leader...
- October 19, 2006 Lessons of Jonestown, By Joshua Alston, Newsweek (Photos included.)
A new documentary explores the story behind the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana. When faith is turned against the faithful...
...In a challenging new documentary that opens in limited release this week, "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple," acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Nelson reconstructs the Jonestown story...
...NEWSWEEK: What made you want to do a documentary about Jonestown?
Stanley Nelson: The project started three years ago, on the 25th anniversary of Jonestown. I heard Peoples Temple members on the radio and became fascinated with the Peoples Temple and their story because it was so different from the story that I had always heard and thought I knew...
- On TV October 18, 2006 Jonestown Tragedy, The Final Report, National Geographic Channel TV
In November 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones becomes infamous for leading 913 people to their deaths. Those who died were members of the People's Temple living in a remote community in Jonestown, Guyana, in South America. When officials arrive to remove the dead, they discover tubs of grape-flavored Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Was it mass murder or mass suicide? Did Jones's followers believe they would become symbolic martyrs, or were lies and intimidation used to prevent people from leaving?
- Movie Review October 15, 2006 Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, New York Magazine
Critic's Pick
Stanley Nelson's powerful documentary interviews former members and survivors of self-declared prophet Jim Jones�s utopian cult. Up-close footage of bystanders being gunned down shortly before the 1978 mass suicide is jolting...
Release Date: 10/20/06
- October 10, 2006 Film on Jonestown to be shown tonight, La Monica Everett-Haynes, Tucson Citizen, Arizona
...The University of Arizona's Hanson Film Institute will present the free screening of "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" tonight with Stanley Nelson, who spent more than a year working on the film.
Never-before-seen footage, interviews with survivors of the 1978 mass suicide in which more than 900 people died and an audio recording of the tragedy are included in the film, which details the rise and fall of Peoples Temple, a religious organization founded by the Rev. Jim Jones...
...Nelson said his film is meant to shake the public's misinformed ideas about Peoples Temple...
- August 21, 2006 Jonestown Hits the Big Screen, Firelight Media
Firelight Media is proud to announce a theatrical release of Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple in collaboration with Seventh Art Releasing. The film opens on October 20 at New York's Quad Cinema and November 3 at Landmark Theaters in San Francisco & Berkeley. More cities to follow. Check our website http://www.firelightmedia.org in the early Fall for details.
- August 19, 2006 A new documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Rev. Jim Jones, By Robert King, Lansing State Journal
From this vantage point - nearly three decades removed from the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana that left more than 900 dead - the foreboding in the voice of Jim Jones is clear...
...viewers of the new documentary film "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple" are introduced to the early life of Jim Jones. The film, by award-winning documentarian Stanley Nelson...airing next year on the "American Experience" PBS series....
- August 5, 2006 Prelude to a massacre, By Robert King, Indianapolis Star, Indiana
A new documentary chronicles the life of Jim Jones and the story of his People's Temple, from its rise in Indianapolis to the horrific tragedy in Guyana
From this vantage point -- nearly three decades removed from the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana that left more than 900 dead...
...the new documentary film "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple" are introduced to the Indiana chapter in the life of Jim Jones. The film, by award-winning documentarian Stanley Nelson, will be shown in a few cities this fall before airing next year on PBS...
- July 15, 2006 Scholars view film on Jonestown tragedy, by Sandi Dolbee, San Diego Union Tribune, California
..."Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," a new documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson. The movie is scheduled to be aired next year on Public Television, and producers are working on a limited theatrical release as well...
...the documentary traces the charismatic Christian minister from his early days at a church in Indianapolis to Northern California...
- July 10, 2006 Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, by Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
Bottom line: An unforgettable historical portrait...
...Through interviews with Jonestown survivors and rare footage of Jones himself, this sober documentary presents an unforgettable historical portrait...The DVD version, which will offer material that didn't make it into the 85-minute version...
- July 1, 2006 Jonestown: Low point in American journalism, Commentary, Les Kinsolving, WorldNetDaily
After the special preview showing of "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple" at a movie theater in Silver Spring, Md. on June 17, Hollywood director Stanley Nelson, took nearly a dozen questions from a capacity audience.
He announced that this movie is scheduled for broadcast on Public Broadcasting in 2007 � and will go to movie theaters this fall...
...I found this film to be effective in what it reported. But it was appalling in what it failed to report.
This failure very much resembled the 1972 failure of all but two major newspapers in the United States to report the major exposes of Jim Jones in a series of Page One stories in the San Francisco Examiner, as well as the Indianapolis Star, in September 1972...
...And therefore, 912 people were murdered or persuaded to kill themselves by this murderous psychopath - in the worst moral disgrace in the history of American journalism...
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