If you have an interest in cults, and cult leaders, then Jonestown and Jim Jones are names you will have heard before.

To run through the basics, Jones convinced his followers to build a new society with him in Guyana, which eventually ended up in the deaths of a staggering 909 people, after he instructed his followers to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.

The story has been well-documented over the years, but now a new series from SundanceTV, and co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, takes an “unflinching glimpse at the motivations of one of history’s most notorious cult leaders”.

Here’s a quick write-up from the Daily Beast:

 Through archival footage, much of it recorded by Jonestown members themselves, and survivor interviews, Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle offers an eerie, engaging look at the man behind a movement that was ultimately responsible for the deaths of 909 people…

Jonestown is a steady examination of one of the most horrifying cult leaders to date, and comes with a warning for our time. Leslie Wagner Wilson, a survivor of the congregation who fled with her infant on the day of the mass murder, said there was a “parallel” between the time of Peoples Temple and now, and that something “much, much more dangerous” than Jonestown is possible.

Yup, I will be watching this one:

The four-part documentary series will air in the US over the coming weekend.

[source:dailybeast]