| |
Almost 30 years after the deaths in Jonestown, Peoples Temple continues
to make the news. The following is a summary of news stories from late
2006 through October 2007 related to Peoples Temple and Jonestown.
- One of the most prominent news stories in the last year about Peoples
Temple and Jonestown was the coverage from Monroe, Louisiana on the
efforts of Lela Howard to locate the grave of her aunt, Mary Pearl
Willis, who died in Jonestown.
Ms. Howard’s story appears
here.
Articles from the News Star of northeastern Louisiana
about Ms. Howard’s campaign appear
here.
Other media coverage appears
here.
A photo gallery of the installation of a headstone for Mary Pearl
Willis appears
here.
- Guyana’s Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Manniram
Prashad brought Jonestown to the front pages of his nation’s
newspaper on August 9, 2007 when he led a delegation to the overgrown
Jonestown site to determine whether it could be developed and opened
as a tourist attraction. An article about Mr. Prashad’s trip
is
here (scroll down to “Pursuing ‘Dark’ Tourism”).
The minister has not made any further announcements of his intentions.
A number of letters to the editor of the Stabroek News debating
the idea followed.
Jonestown can be a popular tourist site
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56527393
Letter to Editor from Jaswant K Dyal, August 23rd 2007
Jonestown should not become a ‘Tourism Product’
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56527553
Letter to Editor from Michael Gilkes, August 25th 2007
Contrary to my former Professor Michael Gilkes I believe
Jonestown could be a legitimate tourist product
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56527756
Letter to Editor from Donald Sinclair, August 28th 2007
Mr Sinclair’s response was thoughtful and informed
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56527806
Letter to Editor from Michael Gilkes, August 29th 2007
Jonestown could become one of the most visited sites
for dark tourism
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56528125
Letter to Editor from Esther Sukhraj, September 3rd, 2007
The primary argument for restoring Jonestown is our
moral and intellectual obligation to preserve history
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56528187
Letter to Editor from Roger Arjoon, September 4th 2007
There are other projects we should memorialize before
Jonestown
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56528251
Letter to Editor from Dave Martins, September 5th 2007
The zoo was a disappointment
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56529373
Letter to Editor from Clive Fredericks, September 22nd 2007
A segment of the nation believes itself victimized and
demonized
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56530153
Letter to Editor from GHK Lall, October 2nd 2007
Forget about Jonestown, what about maintaining Le Repentir
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56530207
Letter to Editor from P. Singh, October 3rd 2007
- Hrag Yedalian has completed his film on the life of Charles Garry
and is in the process of raising money for its distribution. Garry,
a strong defender of civil rights and liberties in the Bay Area during
the 1960s and 70s, represented members of the Black Panther Party
and prison inmates on death row, but he is remembered most for the
client that led to the end of his career: Peoples Temple and Jim Jones.
Garry was in Jonestown on November 18, 1978, but survived the deaths
when he and Mark Lane were taken to the East House for their safety.
The film, The People’s Advocate, which has been shown
in several film festivals, won the 2007 Bay Area Video Coalition Mediamaker
Award.
Details about the film, including a trailer appear
here. A second site with additional details about the film appears
here. An
article about Yedalian’s work appeared in last year’s
jonestown report.
- Stanley Nelson’s film, Jonestown: The Life and Death
of Peoples Temple, was considered for an Academy Award nomination
for Best Documentary Film of 2006 and made the Oscar shortlist of
15, but was not among the five chosen for final consideration. In
addition, the film – which had originally been produced
for broadcast on the PBS series American Experience – was
nominated for a Primetime Emmy award in the “Exceptional Merit
in Nonfiction Filmmaking” Category .
After a limited run in movie theaters around the country, the Nelson
film premiered on PBS in April.
The American Experience website page for the documentary – including
deleted scenes, stories by former Temple members and histories of
the Temple in narrative and timeline formats – is
here. The transcript of the film appears
here. Other coverage includes:
Filmmaker makes Oscar short list for documentary on
Jonestown
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/12/DDGI7O2A4D1.DTL
by Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle, February 12,
2007 (Story includes interview with Nelson)
An interview with Jim Jones Jr. & Stanley Nelson appears
at
http://us.video.aol.com/player/launcher?ar=us_en_video_748x541_full&mode=2&pmmsid=1645952
.
The coverage of the film, including reviews, from the 2006 edition
of the jonestown report appears
here.
- Jonestown: Paradise Lost, a docudrama that made its world
premiere on Canadian television earlier this year before being shown
on The History Channel in the US, earned one of the top prizes at
this year’s Banff World Television Festival in Canada. The feature-length
production, co-produced by Montreal-based Cineflix, received the Playback
Best Canadian Program award during ceremonies in June. Jurors praised
the film for “retelling an already well-known story with powerful
interviews and brilliant re-enactments.”
On October 12, the film was chosen as one of four nominees for a 2007
Grierson Award for “Best Drama Documentary.” The
awards will be announced in London on November 23.
The coverage of the film from the 2006 edition of the jonestown
report appears
here. Online reviews and news coverage include:
“Jonestown”: If all docudramas were this
good ...
http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2007/01/jonestown_if_al.html
by Aaron Barnhart, January 12, 2007
Clocking a Cult’s Final Days in Jonestown
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/arts/television/15bell.html
by Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times, January 15,
2007
Jonestown revisited
http://www.thestar.com/article/188975
by Rob Salem, The Toronto Star, March 7, 2007
The Son Who Survived Jonestown
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/preview/story.html?id=cfb9e322-2907-41be-bb75-c3e9e04fbd27
or
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17677/jonestown-2
by Bill Brownstein, The Montreal Gazette, March 9,
2007
You think your family was screwed up
http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2007/03/you_think_your_family_was_scre_1.html
Dallas News Religion, March 21, 2007 (includes interview
with Stephan Jones)
A
review by Bob Helms, who worked on an earlier incarnation of
the film, appears in this year’s jonestown report.
- In early September, Hollywood buzzed with the rumor that James Gandolfini,
who just completed a run on the HBO series The Sopranos, had agreed
to play the role of Jim Jones in a miniseries about Peoples Temple
to run on the same cable channel. There has been no additional
news since the first few days, and one source with connections to
HBO said the rumors were unfounded.
James Gandolfini Can Be Very Persuasive
http://janetcharltonshollywood.com/gossip/jonestown/james_gandolfini_can_be_very_persuasive_20070911.php
Janet Charlton’s Hollywood, September 11, 2007
James Gandolfini’s New Gig
http://bricksandstonesgossip.com/?p=3805
Bricks & Stones, September 12, 2007
People: From “Sopranos” boss to cult boss
Jim Jones
http://www.denverpost.com/celebritybuzz/ci_6881730
September 13, 2007
- A production of Jonestown: The Musical opens at San Francisco’s
El Geronimo Theater in November. A story about the production appears
here. A review of the self-described “dark musical comedy,”
which premiered in 2004 in New York, appears
here.
- Rob Jones, the son of Erin and Jim Jones Jr. and grandson of Jim
and Marceline Jones, was awarded a basketball scholarship at the University
of San Diego, where he will play for the Toreros. Rob was the subject
of a documentary on ESPN in October. An article by Jon Fish, the producer
of the ESPN piece, as well as links to other coverage of Rob Jones,
his parents, and the Jonestown basketball team, appears
here.
- A year after she lost her bid for the Democratic nomination for
the office of Lieutenant Governor in California, former State Senator
Jackie Speier has accepted a job at the San Francisco law firm of
Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos & Rudy. She now works in the
firm's public agency practice division (story appears
here ). She has also written an autobiography entitled This
Is Not the Life I Ordered.
Sen. Speier came to national attention during the Jonestown tragedy
of November 1978. As a legislative assistant to Rep. Leo Ryan who
accompanied the congressman on his trip to Guyana, she was severely
wounded at the Port Kaituma airstrip during the attack which killed
Ryan and four others on November 18.
A retrospective article on her political career appears
here.
Plans to produce a documentary about Speier’s life – reported
in last year’s
jonestown report – were dropped when she decided that such
a documentary would be inappropriate.
- The Peoples Temple sign that hung on the Geary Street building in
San Francisco was auctioned off on eBay earlier this year. A story
about the auction appears
here.
- In addition to news articles, Jonestown and Peoples Temple is often
mentioned in the mainstream media both as cultural icons and in serious
considerations of religious issues.
1. Jonestown in cultural references
We can see clearly now -- to eat
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2006/12/12/columnists/phil_wieland/9e883e5c946b22d58625724200013fb7.txt
by Phil Wielan, Munster (Ind.) Times, December
12, 2006
A Review Of Storming Heaven
http://www.etherzone.com/2007/meek021907.shtml
by Frederick Meekins, EtherZone, February 19, 2007
Month of Bugs for MySpace
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/5197
by C. J. Kelly
, ComputerWorld, March 17, 2007
Rejecting Reality in Iraq
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/051807.html
by Robert Parry, Consortium News, May 18, 2007
Invasion remake dares to add deeper messages
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/arts/story.html?id=1e20c040-5ab8-40e6-8163-15a2a900c85e
by Katherine Monk, CanWest News Service, August 17, 2007
Majority rule in all but name
Conservatives can enact agenda with Liberals’
help
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=15a4188f-e655-46d7-a9a6-e677b95f2ebd&k=56188
by Don Martin, National Post, October 18, 2007
2. Citing
Jonestown in serious articles
Jonestown tragedy had liberal roots
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/mbates_20061117.html
by Mike Bates, November 17, 2006
Remembering Jonestown, 28 years later
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20061126/ai_n16875620
by Michael Sneed , Chicago
Sun-Times, November 26, 2006
What Al Sharpton doesn’t know about Waco
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55267
by Jack Cashill, WorldNetDaily, April 19, 2007
Mass paranoia: The Israeli-US threat to
the world
http://www.redress.cc/global/pjballes20070724
by Paul Balles, Redress Information & Analysis, July
24, 2007
Pol/Econ : Cheap Oil Like Jonestown Kool-Aid
http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/5906/
by
Bill Bonner , Bits of News, July 28, 2007
Back from Jonestown
http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=6817
by Don Baird, San Francisco Bay Times, September 6, 2007
On Faith: Smear Tactics
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/pamela_k_taylor/2007/09/smear_tactics.html
by Pamela Taylor, Washington Post, September 19, 2007
Conviction offers chance at fresh start
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/98335
Editorial, East Valley (AZ) Tribune, September 27,
2007
(Editorial on conviction of Warren Jeffs)
The Guru is Dead. Long Live the Guru.
Are spiritual teachers still valid in the modern age?
http://commongroundmag.com/2007/10/guruisdead0710.html
by John Kain, Common Ground Magazine, October 2007
GOP Presidential Debaters & The Wizard
of OZ
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ed_tubbs_071010_gop_presidential_deb.htm
by Ed Tubbs, OpEdNews, October 11, 2007
3. Other Guyana perspectives
Hometown residents stunned
http://www.amny.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woguya0604,0,1856028.story
by Letta Tayler, am New York, June 4, 2007
LINDEN, Guyana - To Christians as well as Muslims in this scrappy
mining city, former Mayor Abdul Kadir was far more than a politician.
A spiritual leader and mentor, he went out of his way to help denizens
in greatest need. Yesterday, Linden and the rest of Guyana were reeling
from the news that Kadir might have yet another persona -- a terrorist
wanna-be plotting to blow up Kennedy Airport… As the case unfolds,
many citizens were cringing from their return to the world spotlight
after the Jonestown massacre of 1978, in which more than 900 men,
women and children died in a mass murder-suicide instigated by cult
leader Jim Jones. “First Jonestown, and now we are being compared
to Middle East terrorists,” said one shopkeeper.
|
|
