Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Jonestown movie poster
Directed by	Stanley Nelson
Produced by	Stanley Nelson
Written by	Marcia Smith
Music by	Tom Phillips
Cinematography	Michael Chin
Distributed by	Firelight Media American Experience
Release dates	October 20, 2006
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, is a 2006 documentary film made by Firelight Media, produced and directed by Stanley Nelson. The documentary reveals new footage of the incidents surrounding the Peoples Temple and its leader Jim Jones who led over 900 members of his religious group to a settlement in Guyana called Jonestown, where he orchestrated a mass suicide with poisoned Flavor Aid, in 1978. It is in the form of a narrative with interviews with former Temple members, Jonestown survivors, and persons who knew Jones

Release

The film premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival where it received the Outstanding Achievement in Documentary award, and was broadcast nationally on Monday, April 9, 2007, on PBS's documentary program "American Experience". The DVD release contains a number of scenes and interviews not in the on-air program.

Awards

• Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Feature Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival
• Outstanding Achievement in Documentary, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival
• Nominee, 2006 International Documentary Association Awards

External links

• Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple at IMDb
• Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple at AllMovie
• Official Trailer on Apple.com/Trailers with HighDefinition version
• Firelight Media
• Official Trailer, uploaded to YouTube

Film festivals

• Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, 2006
• Film Festival, San Francisco Film Festival, 2006
• Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, June 2006
• Silver Docs Film Festival, American Film Institute, Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival, 2006
• Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 2006
• BFI 50th Film Festival, British Film Institute, London Film Festival, 2006
• LA Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, 2006
• Martha's Vineyard, International Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard, September 2006
• Milwaukee International Film Festival, October 2006
• Independent Film Festival of Boston, October 2006

Reviews

• Doomsday dream believer, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Cheryl Eddy, 2006
• Compilation of Reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, 2006
• Review, New York Times, Stephen Holden, 2006
• Documentary on Tragic Cult Deserves Huge Following, New York Post, Kyle Smith, October 20, 2006
• Documentary offers rare film of Jim Jones, San Francisco Chronicle, G. Allen Johnson, November 3, 2006
• Another look at Jonestown, The Washington Post, June 2006
• Portrait of infamous cult's rise and fall, Star Ledger, New Jersey, October 21, 2006, Stephen Whitty