Holy Hell

In the early eighties a group of young people in Los Angeles gathers around a teacher. He teaches meditation, wears white, wears sunglasses, and the group calls him Michel. The community grows. They live together, work together and reduce their ties to the outside. Will Allen joins young and knows how to use a camera; for more than twenty years he films everything the community does. Then the group falls apart, and the reason has to do with something hidden for years. Will Allen directs. The documentary dates from 2016. Its material is largely the director's own archive; he kept the group's records and the documentary was built from that footage. What is most striking is the register of the footage; the people look happy in it and the documentary does not deny that. The matter it treats is how people stayed; the narrative shows that those who joined were not stupid and describes why leaving was so hard. Former members speak now and their accounts support each other. The leader's past is researched and the story he told turns out to be untrue. Its limit is closeness; the director was inside it and keeps no distance. Who it is for: people who watch documentary about cults and communities. Who it is not for: the subject is uncomfortable, the narrative personal, and some sections heavy.