Religion Press Release Services

FRONTLINE and American Experience Examine the Mormons

“Sister Aimee” Monday, April 2 on PBS
Thanks to Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, Pentecostalism is now one of the fastest-growing religious movements, claiming more than a half billion adherents worldwide. The film is a portrait of the controversial, wildly popular evangelist who was instrumental in bringing conservative Protestantism into mainstream American culture and politics—but at a price. This one-hour documentary from four-time Emmy Award-winning producer Linda Garmon is based on the new biography “Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America” by Matthew Avery Sutton (Harvard University Press). “Aimee had equal parts religious fervor, star quality and media savvy,” says Garmon, “and she was extremely successful on the pulpit, connecting with Americans emotionally.”

“Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple” Monday, April 9 on PBS
On November 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, 909 members of Peoples Temple died in what has been called the largest mass suicide in modern history. Hailed as “surreal and heartbreaking” (The Village Voice) and “chilling” (San Francisco Chronicle), this 90-minute film features first-hand recollections of former Peoples Temple members, including some who narrowly escaped death in those frantic, final days in the South American jungle; relatives of those who died; and candid interviews with Jones’s son, Jim Jones Jr. “We wanted the story to be told in the voices of the people who lived through it,” explains filmmaker Stanley Nelson. “Of the five people who survived, there are–to my knowledge–three left alive. Two of them are in the film.”

Jonestown also includes never-before-seen footage shot inside Peoples Temple, providing a rare glimpse of Jones’s passionate preaching and emotional healing services.

Also coming this Spring
American Experience and FRONTLINE, two of PBS’s most acclaimed series, join forces to present “The Mormons,” a new documentary about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In two, two-hour episodes, filmmaker Helen Whitney (“John Paul II: The Millennial Pope,” “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero”) explores the history and the modern-day reality of the Mormon faith. Whitney gained unusual access to Mormon archives and modern-day Church leaders as well as dissident exiles, historians, and scholars both within and outside the faith. “Through this film, I hope to take the viewer inside one of the most compelling and misunderstood religions of our time,” says Whitney. The two-part film will air Monday, April 30, and Tuesday, May 1 at 9 P.M. ET on PBS.

Press contacts:
Daphne B. Noyes, 617.300.5344 or daphne_noyes@wgbh.org
Lauren Prestileo, 617.300.5329 or lauren_prestileo@wgbh.org
Press materials:
pressroom.wgbh.org or pbs.org/pressroom

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