Right Between Your Ears

Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

To the Australian media Kenja is a 'secretive cult', their leader described in Parliament as a 'seedy conman'. Despite preparing to fight yet another court case Ken Dyers and Jan Hamilton allow a film crew unprecedented access to the 'spiritual evolvement centre' they founded in 1982. How can the view from inside Kenja be so different to the one outside? Through remarkable verite footage and candid interviews, Beyond Our Ken explores the anatomy and ambiguity of the 'cult' enigma.

As a young man, Rael was visited by aliens who proclaimed him to be 'the last prophet'. That was in the 1970s. Today, the charismatic Frenchman is the leader of the world's largest UFO religion.

The Order of the Solar Temple was particularly twisted, apocalyptic, sinister and lethal cult. It had the particularity of recruiting rich people, in France, Switzerland and Quebec. It became famous through a controversial collective suicide in 1994. The cult was led by Jo Di Mambro and Luc Jouret.

The Branch Davidians believed they were living in a time when Biblical prophesies and divine judgment was coming were imminent ahead of Christ's second coming. A headquarters was first established near Waco in 1935, by a Bulgarian immigrant Victor Houteff, Victor Houteff. At its height, 900 people moved there awaiting a sign from God. Following Houteff's death in 1955, the segment of the group loyal to Houteff continued as the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, led by his wife Florence. She gathered hundreds of faithful followers together at their Mount Carmel Centre near Waco in 1959. Later Benjamin Roden formed another group called the Branch Davidians and succeeded in taking control of Mount Carmel. David Koresh rose to power as a young man in the 1980s, in part by taking its leader, Lois Roden, a woman in her 60s, as a lover. When she died in 1986 at 70, there was a power struggle between her son George Roden and Koresh.

Did Jesus exist? This film starts with that question, then goes on to examine Christianity as a whole.

A report on the secretive Capital Region business NXIVM (Nexium), including the recent revelations that women connected to the group were branded with a symbol that incorporates the initials of Keith Raniere, NXIVM's founder. NXIVM has been described as very expensive brainwashing, labeled as a pyramid scheme, an alleged sex-trafficking operation, and an alleged sex cult.

Ben is worried. Overwhelmed by the world's encroaching crises, he travels from Brandenburg to London to Kansas to the Yucatan peninsula and many places in between, to find out how to cope with social and ecological collapse.

The Freemasons claim to be a civic-minded fraternity bound together by harmless rituals, yet throughout their long history, they have been accused of plotting to take over the world, as well as being devil worshipers who stole King Solomon's treasure. This dramatic reenactment, interspersed with expert interviews, tells the Freemasons' central myth concerning Hiram Abiff, the mythical builder of Jerusalem's Temple of Solomon. Features historians Stephen Bullock Dan Burstein, Brent Morris Akram Elias, and author David Shugarts. But will a rational view reveal the Freemasons as an important and honorable thread in the fabric of America?

On April 19, 1993, in Waco, Texas, after several attempts at talks and negotiations, the American authorities stormed Mount Carmel, the religious campus of the prophet David Koresh at the head of the Davidian sect.

The Making of the TV Series The Walking Dead.

A 25-year-old former cult member seeks out his family in a closed world of neon crosses, deadly alcoholism, and abuse.

On March 30, 1968, four 12 and 13-year-old girls claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared on the Alcaparrosa estate, one kilometer from the village of El Palmar de Troya, in the province of Seville. Weeks later, several neighbors affirmed that they had seen other appearances and in the summer of that same year an altar was built that would be the first stone of the Palmarian Christian church. In June 2018, Ginés, the last Pope of El Palmar de Troya, and his wife assaulted, with brawl included, the congregation’s facilities. Scandals, the shadow of sexual abuse, unlikely anecdotes and all kinds of accusations have marked the more than 50 years of this religious congregation to which some consider church and many others a great sect.

Geraldo Rivera investigates allegations of a widespread Satanic underground in the United States.

The first 20 years of the film-maker's life he grew up in two places: in Jerusalem, and in an ashram in India, a thing he had to keep a secret. in the ashram it wae expected of him to devote his entire being to his guru. Thus, in his words, he could finally define the purpose of his life, understand the "truth" of the meaning of life and be enlightened 20 years later (quite a few in psychological therapy), the director sets out on a quest to find out what was hidden in his life in India, why his life in the Ashram still affects him even when he has not visited in years, And whether he grew up in a cult.

In this investigative exposé, award-winning journalist Harry Robinson goes toe-to-toe with the WMSCOG; a South Korean church 'cult' that believes an elderly Korean woman is God on Earth - all whilst the church watch from the shadows.

Out of the spiritual chaos of the 1960s, more strange cults and unorthodox messiahs have emerged than ever. Charles Manson is seen as the annoying result of libertarianism of the 1960s - the Cain who murdered the Abel from The Love Generation. Or in the words of one commentator; "the Elvis of alienation."

A sexual wellness company gains fame and followers, then members come forward with shocking allegations.

A visual documentary of Einstürzende Neubauten, the German underground band, by Japanese cult director Sogo Ishii, made during their 1985 tour of Japan. The band makes an elaborate and remarkably choreographed appearance in the ruins of an old ironworks which was scheduled for demolition; footage of same was incorporated into the movie and a brief appearance on stage.

In one of the most tragic face-offs in the history of law enforcement, the deadly debacle at Waco pitted the Branch Davidian sect against the FBI in an all-out war. This documentary makes the most of footage and recordings to examine how the events that led to the tragedy of April 19, 1993, unfolded, and how the FBI's unrelenting approach made what was already a bad situation much worse.