Lydia Moyer
the ladies and rev. jones (still)
2010
single channel video
2 min.
Archival footage of the People's Temple, the group that infamously met its demise in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, is remixed to highlight the tension between Rev. Jim Jones and his lady followers. This piece was largely inspired by the book Hearing The Voices of Jonestown by Mary McCormick Maaga, which suggests that Jones's inner circle, almost entirely made up of white women, played a very powerful roll in determining the ultimate fate of the group. Rather than a story of mass brainwashing, Maaga frames the story of Jonestown as one of fiercely failed idealism.
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