Thursday,
March 29 at 7pm
Scribe
Video Center presents
Producers’
Forum
Jonestown:
The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Philadelphia Premiere
dir.
Stanley Nelson, USA, 2006, video, 85 mins, color
Co-writer
and co-producer Noland Walker in person
 Veteran
filmmaker Stanley Nelson traces the stunning rise and fall of
Peoples Temple and its charismatic founder Jim Jones, who convinced
hundreds of his followers in Jonestown, Guyana to participate
in a mass “suicide” on November 18, 1978. The shocking tragedy
made international headlines. More than 900 people, including
over 200 children, died in the utopian community they tried
to create in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Former
members of Peoples Temple, including many whose family members
perished in Jonestown, recount how initially, they felt they
were part of an idealistic interracial community that could
change the world. But they also reveal the fear, paranoia and
beatings that were part of the traumatic experience. Jones became
their father, friend, savior and god.
Stanley
Nelson is an award-winning filmmaker best known for his groundbreaking
historical documentaries that illuminate critical but overlooked
history. His film, The Murder of Emmet Till, won a
Primetime Emmy; the Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance
Film Festival; an International Documentary Association award
and the George Foster Peabody award.
Noland
Walker co-produced/directed
Citizen King for American Experience. He was the Peabody
Award-winning producer of Revolution, an episode in
the Africans in America series. He has worked extensively as
a writer, producer, editor, and script reader in both public
and commercial television, including Quincy Jones Entertainment.
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