Anyone who's interested in San Francisco history must see this movie. Director and MacArthur genius grant recipient Stanley Nelson (who previously directed the Emmy-award-winning The Murder of Emmett Till) has put together a sensitive and thoughtful history of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple that stays away from the usual pat explanations of the situation (as Nelson said in the post-screening Q&A, the story of "900 crazy people drinking Kool-Aid in the jungle") to outline a story that's even more disturbing when you realize how almost-acceptable the situation was that Jones created.
As you can see in the picture at the left, Jim Jones was tight in San Francisco local politics, and was considered a key part of George Moscone's (short-lived) mayoral triumph in 1977. Peoples Temple promoted a religious doctrine of interracial brotherhood, responsibility for the poor, and a socialist utopia in which everyone looked out for everyone else. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Peoples Temple also participated in a number of progressive social movements, attending rallies and organizing get-out-the-vote campaigns, and as a result, Jim Jones was awarded a seat on the board of the San Francisco Housing Authority (!!!) before he fled for Guyana, killed a state congressman, and orchestrated the mass suicide of over 900 people.
Our mouth kept dropping open at the footage that Nelson had obtained -- interviews with Jones's childhood acquaintances (all of whom agreed he was a weird little dude, torturing and killing cats so he could hold funerals for them), sermons by Jones at his temple on Geary (now the post office next to the Fillmore, where the downtown-bound 38 Geary stop is), footage of followers seeing Guyana for the first time, and the most chillingly, live film of the final days in Jonestown and the fateful visit by Congressman Leo Ryan (and a young Sen. Jackie Speier) and tape recordings of Jim Jones urging people to "drink faster, faster, faster." Dude, we were freaked out.
Interviews with survivors, Intersection for the Arts, and Jim Jones Jr. at the Q&A, after the jump.
So we went to the screening at Intersection for the Arts, which was hosting a SFIFF event as part of SFIFF's push to bring film to the community. Since we live near Intersection, we certainly appreciated it, but you know, given that the Kabuki is so close to the old Peoples Temple itself, we're now thinking maybe we should have seen the movie in J-Town instead. We were all proud of ourselves, getting there 45 minutes early, only to find a line stretching all the way to 16th Street -- and in fact, we were the third-to-last person to actually get a seat. We've heard all the other screenings have been selling out as well.
In making Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, Nelson said he'd spoken to almost all the known survivors from the Jonestown suicide, and about 90% of them had agreed to be interviewed. Two people managed to escape from the compound itself, and a number of other Temple members, including three of Jones's sons, were away in Georgetown, Guyana on the day of the killings. The remainder of people he spoke with had left the church earlier, or had relatives who had been members. They all had some pretty horrific stories, about sexual abuse and brainwashing techniques and fake faith healings and profound isolation. And chillingly, they also told stories of how they'd been asked to pretend to drink poison numerous times before.
The scenes of the last days of Jonestown are hard. There's footage of Congressman Ryan being shot, Jackie Speier's stories of being left on a tarmac to die. There's clips of survivors talking about holding their children as they died, and one woman trying to argue Jones out of the plan. It's overwhelming, but we couldn't stop watching either.
There's so many stories they didn't tell -- some of which were alluded to by Jim Jones Jr., who was present at the screening. Jim Jones Jr. is Jim Jones's adopted son, and he had some amazing stories of his own -- how he realized he had to accept his family legacy after Waco, and stories about how he managed to escape Guyana and the various death threats he's received. He handled pretty sensitive questions from the audience remarkably well ("so, was your father a sociopath with you?"), and was resolute in defending Jones as a good father throughout.
Wow. Jonestown screens two more times -- tonight at 7:00 pm at the PFA in Berkeley and tomorrow (Tuesday the 3rd) at 4:30 at the Kabuki. The SFIFF may arrange for a third screening; check their website for more information. The film will be shown on PBS's "American Experience" sometime in 2007, but due to the positive response they've gotten, they may try to arrange for a theatrical screening before then -- we heard it might run in a few months at the Roxie. You've gotta see this movie.
Read Matt Gonzalez's interview with Nelson in the Bay Guardian here. The Chron did a series of articles about Jonestown for the 20th anniversary, here.
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The post office next to the Fillmore is a new building. A copy editing thing, but you make it seem like it was the same building. It was just LOCATED on that spot.