My Scientology Movie (2015) on Netflix
NR20151h 39m
Church officials bar the filmmaker from Scientology's headquarters. He and a former senior church official stage reconstructions of ex-members' accounts. The church answers with surveillance.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.6/1014,320 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
A documentary maker has long wanted to report from inside the Church of Scientology, and church officials refuse him each time. He works instead with a former senior church official who is now a prominent critic of the church, and together they stage reconstructions of incidents that ex-members describe. The scenes center on the alleged violent conduct of the church's leader at Gold Base, its facility in California, and at a punishment site called The Hole. About thirty young actors audition for the parts, and the former members help direct the staging on Hollywood soundstages. Within months the crew is under constant surveillance: cars with tinted windows follow them, camera-carrying pursuers confront them, and Scientology lawyers send letters.
Cast
- Tom De Vochtas Self - Sea Org., 1974-2005
- Marty Rathbunas Self - Former Inspector General, Church of Scientology
- Jefferson Hawkinsas Self - Sea Org., 1967-2005
- Marc Headleyas Self - Sea Org., 1990-2005
- Rob Alteras Self - Actor
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about My Scientology Movie (2015)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Within two months of filming My Scientology Movie, Louis Theroux and his crew were under constant surveillance by the Church of Scientology, which mounted a harassment campaign against them and had them pursued in broad daylight by cars with tinted windows. They also filmed face-to-face confrontations with camera-toting pursuers, so that half the film consists of cameras pointing at other cameras.
- For My Scientology Movie, Louis Theroux and his team recreated events related by ex-Scientologists at the church's Gold Base and its punishment facility, The Hole, filming the scenes on soundstages in Hollywood, with the ex-members who told the stories helping to direct them.
- Working with former senior Scientology official Mark Rathbun, Louis Theroux held auditions for about 30 young actors to play church leader David Miscavige and Tom Cruise. Theroux took the re-enactment idea from Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary The Act of Killing, in which Indonesian genocidaires re-enacted their crimes for the camera.
