Saturday, May 16, 2015

Lonnnnnnnnng Weekends are The Bomb

So I've been following VIFF (Vancouver International Film Festival) on twitter for a few months. I mistakenly had thought that these film festivals happened, like, once a year, and lasted for a few weeks.

But not so with Vancouver.
From what I can tell, it presents movies all year 'round.

(Early releases, independent projects, documentaries, foreign films...)

So on Saturday, my mom and I went to a VIFF offering. A documentary. About Scientology.

It sparked my interest because last October, when Sandra and I were in Clearwater, Florida, we walked around their headquarters, as it was a stunningly beautiful building:







































































We walked around it, at about 11 pm, and were stopped by a young fella, in a suit, with a headset on. He answered our questions. Asked a few of his own, then went inside to gather some materials for us to consider. Very slick.

ANYWAY, other than knowing that Tom C and John T were members of this 'religion?', I didn't know much...

So I was glad for the opportunity to learn more.

VIFF's showings are at the Vancity Theatre, which is a great venue, complete with a balcony. (Which is where we sat, because I was NOT DOING THE FRONT ROW AGAIN.)



























































The movie/documentary was called: Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison Of Belief -

Or; Everything You Wanted to Know about Scientology, But Were Too Afraid To Ask. Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) teams with author Lawrence Wright to blow the lid off this secretive and sinister organization, a "religion" that incorporates the financial structure of pyramid scheme and bears all the hallmarks of a cult.
Gibney talks to 8 former Scientologists, including Crash writer-director Paul Haggis and several senior officials now alienated from the organization. The film gives us the history of Scientology, its bizarre founder L Ron Hubbard, and examines the central tenets of his credo, as well as exploring Scientology’s disturbing, symbiotic relationship with Hollywood celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and its dubious dealings with the IRS.

OH MY GOODNESS

















So. 
So glad I saw it. 
So many questions answered. 
So many people to pray for. 


So interesting that a guy who wrote science fiction comic books for a living, wrote another novel, THAT A RELIGION (?!)  got based on. 

If you get a chance, watch it. 
If you get a chance, support VIFF by seeing the movies they present. 
If you care, take a few minutes to pray for the folks still caught up in this cult. 

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Sleep-in Saturdays.
2. Matinee and dinner with my mom who was up for anything, really. (She's probably grateful it was a documentary, not like that time I took her to see Brokeback Mountain. HAHA)
3. Still two whole days in this long weekend...

Shalom,
xo

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