Waco: Madman or Messiah
★ 7.3 · 2018 · 176m · Documentary
Followers from around the world travel to Mount Carmel to hear the preaching of David Koresh, a local Texas working-class kid turned prophet of God and leader of the religious group The Branch Davidians.
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Inside A Cult: Messiah on Trial
2009 · ★ 6.5
Current and former cult members struggle to come to terms with the 2008 trial of self-proclaimed Messiah Wayne Bent, accused of molesting young girls.
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Manlife
2017 · ★ 6
For over 80 years, Merle Hayden has crusaded to recruit members to the utopian movement Lawsonomy. Founded by aircraft pioneer Alfred Lawson, Lawsonomy advocates for economic reform and clean, communal living that transforms followers into a "New Species" that will benefit the human race either in this life or the next. Merle joined Lawson as a teenager and never looked back. His high school sweetheart Betty Kasch, however, is tired of Lawson coming between them. Reunited after over 60 years apart, non-believer Betty wants Merle to join her in Florida. Merle's commitment to preserving Lawson's legacy, artifacts currently rotting in a barn alongside a Wisconsin highway, has Betty worried Merle may leave her for Lawson once again.
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Aliens from Spaceship Earth
1977 · ★ 5
While the aliens in this film may seem to be quite human, one must realize that we're dealing with close encounters of the fourth kind. An inner space journey triggered by the drug culture and rebellion of the 1960s, and the non-violent search for self that continues among people in today's culture. Could this be due to some influence from a higher spiritual consciousness? The world's alien leaders are well represented in this film: Baba Muktananda, Swami Satchidananda, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, Guru Maharaj Ji, Yoga Bhahan, Sri Sathya, Sai Baba, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Father Yod, Baba Ram Das, and well-known personalities who present their views on seeking their own terrestrial individuality.
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The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
2004 · ★ 7.6
From a small Italian community in 15th-century Florence, the Medici family would rise to rule Europe in many ways. Using charm, patronage, skill, duplicity and ruthlessness, they would amass unparalleled wealth and unprecedented power. They would also ignite the most important cultural and artistic revolution in Western history -- the European Renaissance. But the forces of change the Medici helped unleash would one day topple their ordered world.
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The Roman Empire in the First Century
2001 · ★ 6.3
Two thousand years ago, at the dawn of the first century, the ancient world was ruled by Rome. Through the experiences, memories and writings of the people who lived it, this series tells the story of that time - the emperors and slaves, poets and plebeians, who wrested order from chaos, built the most cosmopolitan society the world had ever seen and shaped the Roman empire in the first century A.D.
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Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire
2004 · ★ 9.5
Japan blossomed into its Renaissance at approximately the same time as Europe. Unlike the West, it flourished not through conquest and exploration, but by fierce and defiant isolation. And the man at the heart of this empire was Tokugawa Ieyasu, a warlord who ruled with absolute control. This period is explored through myriad voices-- the Shogun, the Samurai, the Geisha, the poet, the peasant and the Westerner who glimpsed into this secret world.
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The United States of Insanity
2021 · ★ 8.5
The story of controversial rap duo Insane Clown Posse (ICP), their fans, and their ongoing struggle with the FBI in a landmark case that may be a bellwether of change for First Amendment rights in America.
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2010
Miniseries looking at Barbados through the lives of the island's horse racing community.
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A
1998 · ★ 5.9
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
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The Picture Taker
2022
From his Memphis studio, Ernest Withers’ nearly 2 million images were a treasured record of Black history but his legacy was complicated by decades of secret FBI service revealed only after his death. Was he a friend of the civil rights community, or enemy—or both?
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Eigentlich wollte ich Förster werden - Bernd aus Golzow
2003 · ★ 8
Bernhard Oestreich, called Bernd, son of one of the leaders of the Golzow LPG, did not stay in the countryside, but also turned down the opportunity to graduate from high school in order to study. He should have become a professional soldier. Married with two daughters, Bernd went into big industry, became a laborer and is still as needed today as a foreman at Raffinerie AG Schwedt (Oder) as he once was at VEB Petrolchemisches Kombinat in the days of the GDR. Much has changed in his life, but what has remained is the work in three shifts.
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Zhuang Alliance Group — Archived Live Stream
2020 · ★ 10
Josh-awan Bulman details some highlights of the Zhuang Alliance Group's Style Guide.
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