Hippies and Shit

Mary Beth and I did our Kroger grocery run yesterday evening. Then at night we watched The Source Family (documentary about the Father Yod cult). As a documentary it was, kinda weird. The tone felt off. I mean, I guess since it was all based around interviews with people who were part of it and, for the most part, are not very critical of it, it took on their perspective, but it took it on in the tone too. And it did talk about the abuse of minors, but even with that it...hard to articulate, but saying it brushed it off is too far, even that it "minimized" it...but maybe just a little bit, like talk about it head on enough that you can claim due diligence, but still falling short. The biggest feelings of gravitas towards the negative aspects of the sex-power dynamics were dedicated to the first Mother feeling brokenhearted after being rejected and removed from her somewhat "queen"-like status. And that's a definitely a real side to it, but its weight is less than that of the systematic forced marriage of minors and all the sex with older men. I know part of it is in that perspective given that the woman who was the first Mother feels negatively about it now and the woman they interviewed who was married and impregnated at sixteen doesn't feel negatively about it now and that's the perspective we're getting. I still feel there could be a detached narrative "voice" with the filmmaking that wouldn't seem overtly critical (in such a way that the people wouldn't agree to their interviews being included) but still not taking on their perspective. I don't know, just a lot of things felt "sunnier" than they needed to, like the band reunion later. And it felt like you were supposed to feel sad when that asshole hang-glided off the cliff. Some of the most chilling parts are in the "where-are-they-now"-type afterword. You want so badly for bad things to have happened to that creep Sunflower (granted, not faulting the documentary itself for how his life went, but just commenting on, seriously, fuck that piece of shit). Okay, I'm just kind of rambling.