Holy Hell 6/10
Kumare 5/10
SPOILERS below.
Similar themes in both films.
Holy Hell is a documentary about a small cult that began in the mid 80s in California called Buddhafield led by their conman guru Andreas aka Michel nee Jaime. It was one of those eastern religion/new age types of cults. This one had an amusing angle in that they looked more like an aerobics class than a religious group. Andreas's favorite attire was only a speedo and everyone else was fit or good looking and dressed similarly. They start out well and having lots of blissful times, but we soon enough find out that Andreas had been sexually abusing several male followers, even as he preached abstinence for everyone else. They also found he had a his history in gay porn (one reason he liked to change his name a lot). The film is made by a former member who happened to be the group's official videographer, which gave him access to lots of good footage for the documentary. He was one of the abused men. Interestingly, the former members have mostly good memories, they bought into the mysticism part of it, and its seemed that maybe if the abuse didn't come out they would still be there. They are largely still believers, just not in Andreas. He has started a new group in Hawaii if you're looking to be touched by a fully realized godman in a nice spot. The most coveted religious rite in the group was where Andreas would transfer his enlightenment to you by touching you in a very theatrical ritual. Members were jealous of those who got the special touch. It's an interesting story as far as these groups go, I rate it 6 as a film only because the directing is average and the focus a bit too self-indulgent.
http://afterthetruth.blogspot.com/ is an anonymous blog that was set up during the time when people started leaving the cult to commiserate and vent. One thing that I found and that was another weakness or at least regret of the film is that the members have lots of stories of Andreas being less than godly, but he would always put on his best face while the camera was on, so the footage is an incomplete picture, you had to rely on the testimony for the bad face. Andreas wasn't interviewed for the film, other than a poorly executed "ambush" of him in his new Hawaiian headquarters.
Kumare is another kind of "documentary" about guru cults. The director of this one wanted to expose how people fall for the fakery of gurus and so he posed as one himself and set himself up in Arizona around a yoga studio and drew a group of followers. He's Indian so he had the look after growing out his hair and beard and wearing a robe, and he knew how to talk in guru-speak, having grown up around it. The followers appeared to totally buy that he had super guru powers. A twist in this one is that his plan was to eventually do a reveal of the hoax, but he grew too attached to his flock himself and didn't want to hurt their feelings or something. So, he left town without the reveal, but kept in touch. Eventually he did a soft reveal where he showed up how he normally looks and where his tag line was the point was that they had the power in them all along, that it was them not him (like Oz). One woman left in a huff upon the reveal, others took it in stride and appreciated it, some still believed he had powers. I rated it a 5 because it seemed like the followers were paid or induced to show up, because they had too good of an attendance record at all his events. Too much a fake reality tv feel to it.
