I saw this recently at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival. It had a WHG Boston logo at the beginning credit roll so I would assume that this will aired on PBS television stations. Listening to comments from viewers leaving the theater I was surprised that many had never heard of Jim Jones and Jonestown or could barely remember it. As for me, this documentary fell short in that it never really told me anything about Jones and his doomed cult that I didn't already know. This is the story of the charismatic religious leader Jim Jones and his beginnings in Indiana to his moving to California and ultimately founding the Peoples Temple based in San Francisco where he built a large congregation of predominantly black parishioners and their families and former white hippies. He gained political clout but when an investigation into how is organization is run is launched he moves the temple to a remote South American jungle. It compiles news footage, grainy home movies from temple members and still photographs along with some interviews of people who lost family members and survivors. It's being submitted as a Best Documentary out of the USA to the Academy Awards but this is more of a television movie than a theatrical release. It leaves many unanswered questions as to where they got their weapons and cyanide? Who used the weapons to control the 900 into forcible suicide? What happened to those who oversaw the mass suicide? did they live and escape into the jungle? How did his hierarchy work? What happened to all the money that was being used to run Jonestown? This is a good documentary from director Stanley Nelson and writer Marcia Smith who have teamed together on several television documentaries. It's not great but it's worth a look. I would give this a 7.0 out of 10.
