Review by gloria wong.

Ondi Timoner’s newest film documents four families who have all left the tight-knit Rock Mountain Church for the Wellspring Retreat & Resource Centre. Rock Mountain, they’ve realized to different degrees, is a cult, and Wellspring is a place people go to begin the process of cult deprogramming.

It’s a complex process. In group therapy, the families talk about their shame in allowing their identities to be subsumed by Rock Mountain, and especially, for allowing their children to be vulnerable to the church’s horrific philosophy of child-rearing (it involves an actual rod). Sometimes in what looks like the same session, someone will also share how much they miss Pastor Raimund and “his love”.

After leaving Wellspring, the frustrating process of trying to bring Rock Mountain down begins. Unfortunately, the law is not on their side. In a country that prides itself on the principal of religious freedom, cults that operate as churches (particularly ‘Christian’ churches in the bible belt) are subject to little scrutiny.

At the centre of this controversy is ‘Pastor’ Raimund Melz – the all-in-one father-figure, saviour and tormentor. Timoner is granted a series of interviews at this time with Melz and his wife that reveal a mess of contradictions and hypocrises – while doling out manipulation and extolling the virtues of humility with one hand, he describes himself as “as close (to) perfect as you can get.”

Though the word cult brings to the mind images of Moonies and Hare Krishnas or, more tragically, of Heaven’s Gate and Waco’s Branch Davidians, the film argues that many cults today operate on a subtle level, populated by people who appear to function normally in society. According to experts interviewed in the film, there are 3000-5000 cults with millions in total membership operating in the United States alone. One of the strongest elements of the film is its characterization of its subjects as ordinary people, challenging viewers to question their own ideas about who is vulnerable to brain-washing and the ‘type of person’ (i.e. not us) who joins a cult. Join Us is a fascinating, if somewhat depressing look at this little-talked-about phenomenon.

Join Us
Ondi Timoner | USA | 2007 | 93 min

Thurs. Sept. 27 | 10:30am | Empire Granville Theatre
Tue. Oct. 9 | 8:45pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Wed. Oct. 10 | 1:40pm | Empire Granville Theatre