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THE CULT OF THE FAMILY

By Rosie JONES

DOGWOOF - as SALES All rights

Documentary - Production 2019

An incendiary, shocking three-part investigation into The Family - Australia’s most dangerous cult.

- Year of production
- 2019
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- AUSTRALIA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 180 mn
- Director(s)
- Rosie JONES
- Synopsis
- This series spans half a century to dig deep into The Cult of The Family and its dangerous, charismatic leader, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a one-time yoga teacher whose followers worship her as Jesus Christ reincarnated in the female form. At the heart of the cult is a dark and terrible secret – a bizarre experiment to raise a ‘master race’ of children who will save the world after Armageddon. Home-schooled in isolation, dressed identically and with dyed blonde hair, these regimented children evoke The Sound of Music and Children of the Damned. There are allegations of abuse, starvation and dosing with LSD and tranquilisers. One former cult member counts sixty people, including adults and children, who she believes have committed suicide while in The Family. But despite a five-year police investigation over three continents, Anne walks away without a jail sentence and just a paltry $5000 fine. Why did she get off so lightly? What was the source of her power? How did she control her enablers? And what was happening in society that allowed the cult to flourish? The series excavates the evidence gathered by the police and takes testimony from cult.