It Takes a Cult

Dressed in robes, long dresses and flowing hair, members of The Israel Family (aka, The Love Family, Church of Armageddon) were a common sight in Seattle. They started in 1968 as a small communal, religious household on Queen Anne Hill. In ten years, they expanded to a network of communal homes and businesses, and grew to a tribe of nearly 300, led by Paul Erdman, who renamed himself Love Israel. There were no marriages or birthdays (because people are eternal and have no need for those constructs), but there were drugs, sex, and folk music. New members donated all their possessions and their power of attorney. Director Johannsen, who was born in Wisconsin but grew up as part of the Love Family, opens his film at a reunion of young people brought up in the commune. They, along with the older members, talk openly about Love Israel and his special abilities, about chauvinism, multiple relationships, money, poverty, spiritual visions, social shunning, brainwashing, hierarchy, selfishness, drug problems, and bankruptcy. Johannsen brings an insider's view of what drew the clan together, about the love they shared, and how acceptance into a community is what they all craved, and in most cases, found.