JONESTOWN: TERROR IN THE JUNGLE
US, 2018, 168 minutes, Colour.
As themselves: Vernon Gosney, Leslie Wagner-Wilson, Tim Carter, Jim Jones Jr, Stephan Jones, Jeff Guinn, Mary McCormick Maaga, Grace Stoen, Laura Johnston Kohl, Jackie Speier, Marshall Kilduff. As Jim Jones, Jason John Cicalese.
Directed by Shan Nicholson, Richard Lopez,
This is a powerful documentary screened on television in four episodes.
Memories of Jonestown a strong in the American memory and psyche, the mass suicide of over 900 people, men, women, children, drinking Cool Aid spiked with cyanide or being injected with cyanide. The scenes in the final episode, the buildup to the killings and the motivations, the horror of the deaths and dying, those not wanting to die, those wanting to escape Jonestown, the images of the massed bodies, close-ups of groups, aerial photos.
There have been many cult leaders, many cult communities, isolating themselves from the world, often with religious motivations, many adherents, the attraction and power of the cult leader. Jim Jones became the most notorious in American memory. In 2006 there was a 86 minute documentary screened about Jones and the events with testimonies from survivors. This present documentary uses the same method but has a wide range of survivors as well as authors and commentators. And, the survivors are being interviewed 40 years after the events with final indication of how they coped with their experiences and what they made of their lives.
Two of the most powerful commentators are survivors, Vernon Gosney who commands the screen as he tells his story, with flashbacks to footage of him when young, narrating his attempt to escape Jonestown, his being shot, his recovery, the discovery of what had happened and its effect on him. (In fact, he served 30 years as a police officer.) Also very strong is Tim Carter, again footage from the past, the death of his child, disillusionment with the situation, packing, escaping into the jungle, abandoning the suitcases, rescued. At times in the interview, generally speaking very calmly in describing his memories, on the point of breaking down with emotion. A mother who lost a large number of family and friends, surviving by escaping into the jungle with her son, is Leslie Wegner-Wilson. Also interviewed his Grace Stoen who left Jonestown much earlier, leaving her son and making every attempt to recover him but his being taken into special charged by Jones himself, and indications that Jones killed him during the suicides.
Two of Jones sons, in Jr and Stephan, late teens and early 20s in their time with their father, are also interviewed at length. They were absent in Georgetown at a sports event and tell their story of their being informed of what it happened, the woman with whom they were staying killing her children, the police, going to Jonestown itself. The two men made something of their lives and their families.
The first episode goes to the origin of the People’s Temple in San Francisco, Jones as a cult leader, drawing a great number of people to the Temple, both black and white, his talk of a better world, religious motivations. He then goes with his group to Guyana, setting up a town outside Georgetown, making it the home of the Peoples’ Temple, promising them a better life and seeming to achieve it. A great deal of footage of the enthusiasm of the people in Jonestown. However, over the years, Jones love of power emerges, his control over every aspect of the people’s lives. And, in his own life, there is sexual exploitation, dependence on drugs, his being photographed speaking, especially with his dark glasses.
Most people want to stay but there were some who left raising suspicions in California, in San Francisco, relatives in the US concerned. In November 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan along with an assistant, Jackie Speirs, and journalists flew in to Guyana, visited the town, met people, listened to stories, then went to the airport and were attacked by guards from the town, knives, guns, Leo Ryan killed, Jackie Speirs wounded in arm and leg, thinking she was dying. The repercussions for Jones was that authorities would come in and, over the years, he had suggested that if enemies came, it was better for the whole group to kill themselves, a revolutionary gesture against those who would destroy their town.
In the final episode, there are excerpts from the recording made of those events, eerie to listen to, eerie in visuals, with some reconstructions with actors.
(On a personal level, this reviewer was on sabbatical in Berkely in October-November 1978, very conscious, especially the media, newspapers, of what was happening in Jonestown, the background in the preceding years, the death of Congressman Ryan, the repercussions in San Francisco, and then the horror of what actually happened. This is still very strong in the memory.)
This documentary series is well worth seeing, harrowing, but an alert to the dangers, megalomania of cult leaders, and the dire consequences for their followers.
