About the Korpela movement or Siikavaara sect active during the 1930's in the far north of Sweden. Toivo Korpela a Laestadian preacher was outmanoeuvred by Sigurd Siikavaara and returned to Finland. Siikavaara who preferred apocalyptic beliefs and ecstatic rituals soon gathered a large following and became prophet #1. With Artur Niemi, prophet #2, he draped and enhanced the rituals with total sexual freedom. At the trial in 1939 Siikavaara assured that he had not been sober one day during the last 8 years. Chanting "Saatana, Saatana, Helvettin, Babylon,Perkele" over and over. Swearing and cursing all the way to Eden.
Sven-Olof Persson, Bengt Pohjanen, Hellevi Korpela, Titta Jokinen, Maritta Viitamäki, Peter Oskarson, Bengt Siikavaara, Osmo Hettula, Rauni Mollberg

Two brothers from the hit '60s rock band PEOPLE! had their careers and relationship torn apart by Scientology. Through a journey of healing, they reunite decades later to face their shared trauma to break free from the grip of indoctrination and rebuild their fractured family anew. With a blend of music nostalgia and cult manipulation, it sheds light on the enduring power of resilience.
2026

2024

On March 30, 1968, four 12 and 13-year-old girls claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared on the Alcaparrosa estate, one kilometer from the village of El Palmar de Troya, in the province of Seville. Weeks later, several neighbors affirmed that they had seen other appearances and in the summer of that same year an altar was built that would be the first stone of the Palmarian Christian church. In June 2018, Ginés, the last Pope of El Palmar de Troya, and his wife assaulted, with brawl included, the congregation’s facilities. Scandals, the shadow of sexual abuse, unlikely anecdotes and all kinds of accusations have marked the more than 50 years of this religious congregation to which some consider church and many others a great sect.
2020

Filmed during summer 2019, Jesus Is King brings Kanye West’s famed Sunday Service to life in the Roden Crater, visionary artist James Turrell’s never-before-seen installation in Arizona’s Painted Desert. This one-of-a-kind experience features songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with new music from his forthcoming album.
2019

A short documentary featuring a brief overview of Bill Gothard's ministries, and some of the consequences for his followers.
2017

Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.
2016

An inside look at a West Hollywood cult formed by a charismatic teacher in the 1980s that eventually imploded.
2016

After being denied access to the Church of Scientology's headquarters, documentarian Louis Theroux teams up with ex-Scientology official Marty Rathbun to stage re-enactments of alleged abuses within the organization. Theroux soon discovers that the church is watching his every move.
2016

A feature documentary film set in Hollywood, examining a radical experiment in '70s utopian living. The Source Family were the darlings of the Sunset Strip until their communal living, outsider ideals and spiritual leader Father Yod's 13 wives became an issue with local authorities. They fled to Hawaii, leading to their dramatic demise.
2013

Out of the spiritual chaos of the 1960s, more strange cults and unorthodox messiahs have emerged than ever. Charles Manson is seen as the annoying result of libertarianism of the 1960s - the Cain who murdered the Abel from The Love Generation. Or in the words of one commentator; "the Elvis of alienation."
2012

Following up on his 2007 documentary, The Most Hated Family in America, Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, for a week-long visit with the Westboro Baptist Church. He again joins the Phelps family on their controversial pickets where they try to antagonise communities with offensive slogans and anti-gay placards. But four years on from Louis's last visit, there are signs of disarray in the Phelps clan. A series of defections of family members has shaken up the church.
2011

2011

At the Mountain Rock Church in South Carolina, Pastor Raimund Melz leads a small Christian cult that justifies brutal actions like child abuse with the words of the Old Testament. Documentarian Ondi Timoner focuses on one family in particular, who left the church with plans to file charges against Melz before eventually checking into a one-of-a-kind cult treatment center. Timoner's film follows their journey as they receive psychological help and then return home to confront their former pastor.
2007

On January 7th 2005, 29 year old Rick Rodriguez murdered his former nanny and then killed himself on a lonely desert highway. Hours earlier he had videoed his suicide note and this final message provided a remarkable insight into a deeply damaged life. It also lifted the lid on one of the most notorious religious cults to emerge out of the 1960s counter culture: The Children of God sect.
2006

A documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.
2006
Masters of Darkness: Aleister Crowley, the Wickedest Man in the World
2002

Documentary tracking the exploits of aging Calvinist preacher Fred Phelps, a convicted felon who leads his cult (primarily composed of his wife, nine of their children, and his fifty-two grandchildren) on their "love crusades" across America, which include calling for gays to be killed, praising terrorist attacks, mocking mourners at the funerals of AIDS patients and murder victims, and literally dancing and spitting on the graves of his enemies.
2000

Waco, the Big Lie is a 1993 American documentary film directed by Linda Thompson that presents video-based analysis regarding the Waco siege. The first film made about the Waco siege, Waco, the Big Lie gained significant notoriety when it was viewed during the trial of American domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh. As part of the defense, McVeigh's lawyers showed Waco, the Big Lie to the jury.
1993

An unprejudiced portrait of Spanish folklore and a crude analysis in black and white of its intimate relationship with atavism and superstition, with violence and pain, with blood and death; a story of terror, a journey to the most sinister and ancestral Spain; the one that lived far from the most visited tourist destinations, from the economic miracle and unstoppable progress, relentlessly promoted by the Franco regime during the sixties.
1972
The story of Nisar Ahmed Khan, told through his children and the people he served, a spiritual guide whose followers still visit his tomb on his birth and death anniversaries. And alongside how his family spends a few days at the village keeping his traditions alive.