Lord of the Universe (1974)

Original title

The Lord of the Universe

Directed by

Michael Shamberg

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

58 min

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows the teenage guru Prem Rawat and his followers around a 1973 event at the Houston Astrodome. It shows interviews with supporters, critics, and ex-followers, including activist Rennie Davis and commentator Abbie Hoffman.

observationalintrospectivegroundedunderstatedinformationalclinicalopinionatedneutral-toned

What happens

Lord of the Universe is a 1974 American documentary film about Prem Rawat (at the time known as Guru Maharaj Ji) at an event in November 1973 at the Houston Astrodome called "Millennium '73". Lord of the Universe was first broadcast on PBS on February 2, 1974, and released in VHS format on November 1, 1991. The documentary chronicles Maharaj Ji, his followers and anti-Vietnam War activist Rennie Davis who was a spokesperson of the Divine Light Mission at the time. A counterpoint is presented by Davis' Chicago Seven co-defendant Abbie Hoffman, who appears as a commentator. It includes interviews with several individuals, including followers, ex-followers, a mahatma, a born-again Christian, and a follower of Hare Krishna. The production team of Top Value Television produced the documentary, using Portapak video cameras. The TVTV team followed Maharaj Ji across the United States over a period of six weeks, and edited a large amount of tape down to the fifty-eight-minute piece. It was the first documentary made on 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) video tape broadcast nationally, and also the first independent video documentary shown on national public television. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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