'Holy Hell' Director Will Allen Explains How He Got 'Stuck' in a Cult (Video)

Jeff Snyder here at the Raps Sundance video studio and I'm sitting down with Will Allen the director of holy hell will thanks for coming thank you thank you don't be nervous we're gonna have fun so tell us a little bit about what this documentary is about the documentary covers about 22 years of my involvement in a secret spiritual community that started in LA went to Austin Hawaii and it's footage that we've never shared before and that's what it's about I've heard some describe this secret spiritual community with the c-word yes we try not to use that word okay only because it's hard to get out from under it but I think of it as more of an evolution the beginnings of something that became a cult okay it starts off with innocent beginnings and it's kind of the evolution of that you start to realize like what have I gotten myself in so I think that's true yes that could be true and we start to use the c-word eventually but that wasn't a word we use while we're in it okay of course it's not we're not a cult for sure right you got to take that step back that's right we were so what's your background as a filmmaker just your first film this is my first like commercial feature film okay but I started making movies when I was 13 and I went to film school and SMU in Dallas Texas and I graduated from school and right after that I met my teacher and so right after that I started this whole thing and I was looking for happiness and stuff and I started to film it and I ended up getting stuck in it I would say that I would use that word it wasn't my plan so um I film for 20 years and when the whole thing ended I tried to make sense of it with putting all this together and the leaders of this community they weren't nervous at all about you shooting they encouraged it yeah it was part of it was a very creative group and the teacher turns out to be very you know he's always very vain and interested in his invention is that what you call him teacher no for the purpose of the film it's hard we try to come up with a word that we can talk about okay leaders is scary guru is like getting him too many credentials teacher let's just keep it there when the lineup was announced when the Sundance lineup was announced your name was omitted it was a big mystery who made this movie can you talk about why that wasn't and why you decided to then reveal yourself I was not expecting to get into Sundance so quickly or when it happened and so we weren't really quite ready to come out with the whole subject I wasn't finished filming there are people we were trying to protect the teacher is still out there and we wanted to finish the film with no interruption okay and I also wanted to make another trip back there to do one more shoot we didn't want that to be spoiled so we decided keep it quiet a little longer was there is there any fear of retribution from other members yeah not members not people I know not my friends I would say him and his new friends when we talk about that retribution is it more that they're trying to discredit you and your reputation or would be violence or towards the end of my experience in this group he had gone to the measure of violence okay he spoke about violence he always undermines and sub hurts people without without anyone knowing so we were cautious about anything that he might do but we kept it so quiet that he didn't know about it okay so not until now he knows I want to know why did you join this community in the first place what was sort of missing from your life ten years ago well when I finished film school I was very burnout right and I was looking for the meaning of life and I was looking for meaning I was using my films to look for meaning and I think I decided that the artist and the film aren't always the same someone might make a really great film they might be a really unhappy person and I loved a lot of filmmakers that were great artists but I felt like I had to be a whole person before I made a movie so I was looking for that so I had something to say so I was going like on a little journey for a little period of time to try to find myself and it ended up being come along thank you so much for coming - she ate it all right thanks

Channel: TheWrap

Views: 23,701

Rating: 4.9720278 out of 5

Keywords: thewrap, thewrap.com, the wrap, Holy Hell, Sundance, Sundance 2016, Sundance Film Festival, Will Allen

Id: _hueQlD9ezU

Length: 3min 58sec (238 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2016