Jonestown: Paradise Lost 2007

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History Documentary

Jonestown: Paradise Lost is a documentary on the final days of Jonestown, the Peoples Temple, and Jim Jones. From eyewitness and survivor accounts, it recreates the last week before the mass murder-suicide on November 18, 1978.

Release Date 2007-01-15
Runtime 1h 41m
Director Tim Wolochatiuk
Producer
Writer Jason Sherman

Coming in close to 30 years after the Jonestown Massacre, this is a dramatic retelling (with actual footage mixed in) of the fateful hours leading to the end of the People’s Temple Agricultural Project. Rick Roberts give a strong performance as Jones, a man who is seeing is dream of a socialist paradise dissolve after finding out more and more of his “people” want to defect once the horrid conditions and practices are brought to light. The real powerhouse is Greg Elland as Congressman Leo Ryan, playing him as an unnervingly cool and heroic would-be savior, only to end as a victim to one of the darkest days in United States history.

Dave