In 1978, cult leader Jim Jones lures his followers to Jonestown, Guyana where they commit mass suicide of 918 adults and children.In 1978, cult leader Jim Jones lures his followers to Jonestown, Guyana where they commit mass suicide of 918 adults and children.In 1978, cult leader Jim Jones lures his followers to Jonestown, Guyana where they commit mass suicide of 918 adults and children.
Frank Reynolds
- Self
- (archive footage)
John Moscatelli
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (as Capt. John Moscatelli)
Barbara Schaffer
- Self - Jim Jones' Cousin
- (archive footage)
Marceline Jones
- Self - Wife
- (archive footage)
Elmer Mertle
- Self - Former Member
- (archive footage)
Deanne Mertle
- Self - Former Member
- (archive footage)
Mike Carter
- Self - Survivor
- (archive footage)
Wanda Johnson
- Self
- (archive footage)
George Moscone
- Self
- (archive footage)
Leo J. Ryan
- Self - Congressman
- (archive footage)
- (as Leo Ryan)
Stephen Sung
- Self - Soundman
- (as Steve Sung)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBased on the same real life events as Jonestown Cult Suicide (2012), Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (2018), Jonestown (2013), Jonestown: Paradise Lost (2007), Jonestown: The Women Behind the Massacre (2018), Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980), The Jonestown Haunting (2020), Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple (2007), The Jonestown Massacre (2016) and Truth and Lies: Jonestown, Paradise Lost (2018).
Featured review
OK documentary on People's Temple, Jonestown
Another reviewer criticizes this for not spending enough time on the actual massacre. If a person really needs more footage and reportage of the awful suicide/murder at Jonestown, then maybe this isn't the documentary for you. If instead you want to understand how Jim Jones and so many people wound up in Jonestown dying, then this is a decent short documentary. The story of Jones and Jonestown isn't just a spectacular one-day event of murder and suicide, it was how Jones went from an outsider boy in Indiana with a bent toward fundamental religion, to develop a once-idealilstic but progressively manipulative all-encompassing organization in rural California, on to becoming a controlling, addicted, paranoiac madman who brainwashed mostly poor and downtrodden men, women, and children into killing themselves in a terrible jungle in South America. The whole story isn't just the suicides/murders, it's about how Jones became god-like in his mind and convinced vulnerable people that life as he dictated it was somehow better than they could do on their own. Jonestown wasn't just a place, it was an evolving state of mind. This doc is too short to show it all, but a good place for people new to the subject to start.
helpful•20
- sycamoreavenue
- Jul 26, 2018
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour
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