Marjoe (1972)

Directed by

Howard Smith, Sarah Kernochan

Genre

documentary film, biographical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 28m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 35 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A documentary about a former child preacher who, as an adult, admits he was taught to deceive. He shows the film crew how evangelists manipulate crowds for money, while the people in those crowds do not know they are being filmed for an exposé.

revealingexposingmanipulativeeuphoriccynicalcriticalbehind-the-scenesunsettling

What happens

Marjoe is a 1972 American documentary film directed and produced by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan about Pentecostal preacher Marjoe Gortner, who was ordained as a preacher at only age four and became an evangelist sensation in the 1940s. Made with the knowledge and consent of Gortner, who, now in his late twenties, regrets the many lies he had been taught to preach as a child evangelist, documents his story and preachings that often leave church-goers in states of fervent euphoria, and culminate in money donations. While Gortner privately explains to the film crew the often-deceptive methods of many evangelists, most of the individuals featured, evangelists and church-goers alike, are unaware of the film's true aim of exposing exploitation and deception within evangelism. Considered a pioneering film in the documentation of deception in evangelism, the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 45th Academy Awards, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film. It was long considered a lost film, until it was recovered in 2002, leading to its subsequent restoration and preservation. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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