Religion: Videos & Images

This film portrays everyday life inside and around a Kali temple in the city of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh (India). Its central characters are a priest and three devotees, who show why this temple is so important to them. The film follows these characters through their daily routines at home, at the temple, and on their occasional visits to the holy places of other non-Hindu religious traditions.

A documentary feature film about one man's journey across northern India and his search for enlightenment. Rajive McMullen, a history teacher suffering from a debilitating illness, makes the painful journey into the heart of Tantra, searching for meaning in holy shrines, coming close to death in cremation grounds and enjoying the chaos of the Aghori seekers.
This film offers dramatic insight into Tantrik ideas about the life cycle, particularly death, and contributes much to our understanding of how we seek knowledge and how we die.

Varanasi, India is one of the holiest cities, located in the northeastern part of the country. People from all over India, even the world, travel to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges River to wash away their sins and purify their souls.
Along the river embankment are boatmen who row tourists up and down the Ganges during Dev Diwali, a festival celebrated 15 days after the national holiday of Diwali. The boat rides are part of the spiritual experience on this holy day, and the film introduces the audience to the river, this auspicious event, and one particular boatman, whose main source of strength and survival comes from the Ganges.

This feature documentary is an experiential journey into the mystical practices of Japanese mountain asceticism. In Shugendo (The Way of Acquiring Power), practitioners perform ritual actions from shamanism, “Shinto,” Daoism, and Tantric Buddhism. They seek experiential truth of the teachings during arduous climbs in sacred mountains.

Pastors encourage an impoverished Kentucky community, “The forgotten people of America”, to donate to Israel in anticipation of Jesus's impending return. The film exposes the controversial bond between Evangelicals and Jews, in a story of faith, power and money, revealing how Trump’s America was led by an End-Times apocalyptic countdown.

A tiny community in rural Ghana recently discovered that the religion they have been practicing for centuries is Judaism. Filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha explores their story from isolation to global connection and the challenges and rewards they face along the way.

The film explores the world's first major opinion poll, conducted by the Gallup organization. It asked Muslims from Indonesia to South Asia, to the Middle East, as well as minority communities in the US and Europe, what they thought about issues such as Gender Equality, Terrorism, and Democracy. It presented by Islamic scholars and the Gallup members themselves who give context and try to provide explanations for the results.

A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement.
The film follows these children at camp as they hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for Christ." The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future.

In CULTS AND EXTREME BELIEF, Elizabeth Vargas, alongside former members of controversial organizations, goes on a search to uncover how these sects use their influence to prey upon people’s desperation to create powerful and often destructive belief systems. Each episode will take an immersive look at one currently active group through the eyes of past devotees and get perspective from believers and leaders that are still inside.

BAFTA Award-winning reporter Mobeen Azhar travels across the world to investigate the destructive links between religion and conflict. He digs deep into Islamic extremism in his native countries of the UK and Pakistan, right-wing Christianity in the USA, Indonesia’s secular state, Hindu Nationalism in India, and Myanmar’s hardline Buddhists.

This New York Times Critic's Pick tells the story of the people who followed cult leader Jim Jones to the remote jungles of Guyana, South America, in a misbegotten quest to build an ideal society.

Inspired by her stepbrother’s experience of being “deprogrammed” in 1991, director Mia Donovan delves into the little known history of a controversial underground movement led by the notorious anti-cult crusader, Ted Patrick. His practice of "deprogramming", also known as "reverse brainwashing", started in the early 1970s and quickly snowballed into a vast underground movement composed of concerned parents, ex-cultist-turned-deprogrammers and some sympathetic law-enforcers whose mission was to physically and mentally remove individuals from "cults".

Chronicling the extraordinary rise of one of the most colorful and controversial religious movements in American history, HAIL SATAN? is an inspiring and entertaining new feature documentary from acclaimed director Penny Lane (Nuts!, Our Nixon). When media-savvy members of the Satanic Temple organise a series of public actions designed to advocate for religious freedom and challenge corrupt authority, they prove that you can speak the truth in some truly profound ways. As charming and funny as it is thought-provoking, HAIL SATAN? offers a timely look at a group of often misunderstood outsiders whose unwavering commitment to social and political justice has empowered thousands of people around the world.

Disillusioned with his all-American life, a young man is confronted by thoughts of suicide. To save his own life, he embarks upon a hazardous journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest, where stories of Shamans and Ayahuasca ceremonies promise psychic redemption. His experiences with tribal medicines are life-changing - but he is also forced to confront the parts of himself he has long struggled to understand.

An indigenous community worships American materialism on the tiny Pacific island Tanna. When the American military arrived during World War II, the islanders were amazed by America's fantastic cargo - planes, trucks, refrigerators, canned food. They thought such goods could only come from the Gods. Led by the mysterious prophet John, a religion was born, the John Frum Movement, also known as a Cargo Cult.

Western and African cultures collide in Haiti resulting in religious conflict between Christianity and Voodoo. Despite centuries of vigilant opposition from the Christian Church, Voodoo has flourished in Haiti and continues to be one of the strongest elements underlying Haitian culture. This film dispels Hollywood stereotypes and presents Voodoo as a belief system that has been passed down from African ancestor to slave to present day Haitian.