Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple on PBS Mon

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple airs Monday, April 9th on most PBS stations (also available on DVD).

Stanley Nelson's documentary tells a story we still need to see.  That shows we need to look at any leader or movement critically no matter how good their politics seem.

Nelson's website has a screening kit.  He made an excellent documentary about the Black Press.

  Also, this interview Nelson did a year ago with former San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez.

A San Francisco Chronicle series from 1998.

Lots of links at the end of

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

•  Oh, I thought this diary was about Jonestown,

  which would have been interesting.

  Question: Does embedding youtube a diary make? Is a picture worth a thousand words?

  by ablington on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:05:18 PM PDT

  •  Useful to me

    I had heard about this documentary and wanted to watch it but didn't know it was on PBS tonight, so this diary was of use to me.

    NPR's 1981 radio documentary "Father Cares" is also very good.

    http://www.npr.org/...

    by ortcutt on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:13:14 PM PDT

•  A list of links does not a diary make.

  Even if some are in the form of embedded youtube videos.

  by Feanor on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:11:07 PM PDT

  •  well

    Neither the i or o on my keyboard s workng so t took a long tme to wrte that much.

    fgured t would be better to let people know about t than wte a thess.

    by ari on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:38:34 PM PDT

    •  Drink much?

      by pkbarbiedoll on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 06:25:28 PM PDT

      •  Never n/t

        by ari on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 11:45:14 PM PDT

•  Thanks.

  I didn't know about this, and I'll check it out if I get home from work in time.

  by Mehitabel9 on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:20:14 PM PDT

•  I remember when Congressman Ryan

  was murdered on the tarmac, which set the mass murder into motion. Ryan was my representative.

  The final words of Jim Jones is floating around the InterTubes... sad and scary

  by theRoaringGirl on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:21:09 PM PDT

•  It was Nixon's fault

  The Doctor who mixed the fatal Kool-aid left Houston, TX as disillusioned and bitter young man. He already had some personal problems and then his politically active brother was arrested doing some anti-Viet Nam war guerilla theater in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center. He was wearing an old army jacket from the Army-Navy store and Nixon's DOJ charged him with impersonating a member of the military and convicted him. This case went all the way to the SCOTUS before he was acquitted. In the meantime his brother went to California, became part of Jim Jones' Temple which sponsored him through a Mexican Medical School and completely turned his life around all the way to the end.

  by OHdog on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:29:42 PM PDT

•  Hey!

  The filmmaker's my neighbor!

  by LarryInNYC on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 05:34:42 PM PDT

•  I saw this in Atlanta

  a few months ago.  Chilling story, indeed.

  by pkbarbiedoll on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 06:24:02 PM PDT

•  Watched last night

  This is a great documentary.  I was struck by how Christian extremism is not restricted to the Religious Right, as it tends to be these days.  The People's Temple was a sort of "hippy Rainbow Coalition" of utopian beliefs that was manipulated by the svengali Jones.  As seems to always be the case with these cults, there was a "secret" sexual deviance practiced by Jones behind closed doors.  

  All the other usual cultish things combined to make the People's Temple:

  Charismatic Pentecosal-trained leader
  People surrendering their life savings
  Punishment for anything short of absolute submission/loyalty
  A desire by the church member to be led by a "wise" authoritarian figure
  Fake miracles
  Brainwashed members who would work 18-hour days to support the cult.

  How many of these things do we see in today's Dept. of Justice?

  by YankInUK on Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 06:46:44 AM PDT