indieWIRE rave! - 'a completely absorbing film'

"Give me that big time religion" - April 10, 2008

On Tuesday night, director Ondi Timoner ("Dig") was at the IFC Center for the weekly Stranger Than Fiction documentary series, and a screening of her latest doc, "Join Us." The film explores cults in the United States by specifically focusing on the rehabilitation of one such group, an extremist Christian sect in South Carolina whose pastor forced its members to beat their children (occasionally stepping in to abuse them himself), after contributing most of their financial assets to him. It's a terrific film, made all the more intense by Timoner's shockingly intimate footage (much of it taken at the Wellspring treatment facility), which captures the realization, regrets and uncertainty of the church's members, as they begin to reject their former pastor.

"It was uncanny," said Timoner after the screening. "These people's trust and faith had been so violated, and yet they were so open with us. It was really amazing."

Timoner was inspired to make the film after Bush won reelection in 2004, largely on the strength of the religious right. "The whole idea of religious freedom has gone way too far," she explained. "The non-profit status of the cults makes it really hard for the state to intervene, it's abused so badly."
Timoner includes a good deal of unsettling footage that she shot with pastor Raymond Melz and his wife Deborah (shot under only slightly misleading circumstances- she claimed she was making a documentary "on religion"). "The pastor said "I feel like you've been sent from God to bring my message to the world"," joked the director. "I think I've done that as much as I can."

It's a completely absorbing film, which makes its lack of distribution surprising; Timoner has been distributing the film herself, from its website http://www.joinusthemovie.com .

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/04/ny_ny_gotham_fe.html