http://www.metromagazine.com.au https://theeducationshop.com.au A STUDY GUIDE BY © ATOM 2019 ISBN: 978-1-76061-XXX-X ATOM CONTENT HYPERLINKS
3 CURRICULUM LINKS
5 SERIES SYNOPSIS
7 PARTICIPANTS
10 DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
10 PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
11 TIMELINE
11 BEFORE VIEWING
12 VIEWING CHART 1
13 VIEWING CHART 2
15 KEY THEMES THIS IS A REMARKABLE 15 CLOSE ANALYSIS AND GRIPPING STORY – 16 EPISODE ONE: UNSEEN, HAIR-RAISING, UNFATHOMABLE UNHEARD, UNKNOWN AND DEEPLY DISTURBING.
The Cult of The Family (2019) directed by Rosie Jones is a three-part investigation into the rise and fallout of Australia’s most notorious cult. With survivors and former cult members telling their stories alongside the Australian detectives and the investigative journalist who worked the 23 AFTER VIEWING case, The Cult of The Family exposes not just The Family but also the conservative community 23 CREATIVE TEAM that allowed it to flourish. 24 FURTHER INFORMATION
24 CREDITS TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGJ606k2sE
DURATION: 3 x 58 minutes © ATOM 2019
2 ++CURRICULUM LINKS
The Cult of The Family is suitable for secondary students in Years 10 – 12 studying English, Ethics, Health and Human Development, Legal Studies, Media, Psychology and Sociology.
ENGLISH MEDIA
The Cult of The Family can be used as an individual or The Cult of The Family can be used to study the documentary’s supplementary text. Students should study texts that explore ethical representation of events, people, organisations, places and ideas. dilemmas in real-world settings. It is also recommended that Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: students have access to non-fiction texts that represent a synthesis of information from credible and verifiable sources. • understand the codes and conventions that are used to construct media narratives; Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: • analyse media narratives to understand how meaning is • identify and discuss key aspects of the documentary; constructed and how audiences are engaged; • comprehend, appreciate and analyse the way in which the • learn that media narratives are created through a process of documentary is constructed and may be interpreted; selection, construction and representation; • construct spoken, written and multimodal responses to the • analyse and discuss the selection of images, words, sounds documentary. and ideas and the ways in which these are presented, related and ordered; ETHICS • understand how media representations are subject to multiple readings by audiences who construct meaning based on a range of personal, contextual, social and institutional factors. The Cult of The Family can be used to discuss the principles that guide practical moral judgment and the justification for moral choices – identifying the arguments and analysing the reasoning PSYCHOLOGY behind them. Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: The Cult of the Family can be used to study aspects of social psychology by examining interpersonal and group behaviour. • examine concepts used in ethics and ethical decision-making, It is generally accepted that a key factor in the psychological such as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’; wellbeing of individuals depends on the extent to which the need • identify the factors involved in the process of ethical decision- for affiliation is met – a sense of belonging and connectedness making, such as reasoning, conscience, intuition, common sense, whether it be to family, a group, a school or workplace, or a wider assumptions, authorities, world views, values, ethical principles community. and the competing rights and responsibilities of individuals, groups and society. Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: • explain how attitudes are formed and changed; HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT • analyse how behaviour and perceptions of self and others are shaped by social and cultural influences including the attitudes and behaviours of groups; The Cult of The Family can be used to explore the complex interplay • discuss the factors that affect the behaviour of individuals and of biological, sociocultural and environmental factors that support groups; and improve health and wellbeing and those that put it at risk. • understand the interplay of factors that shape the behaviour of Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: individuals and groups. • the impact of early life experiences on future health and development; SOCIOLOGY • examine how health and wellbeing may be influenced across the lifespan by the conditions into which people are born, grow, live, The Cult of The Family can be used to study human behaviour and work and age; in particular, the social institution of the family and the purpose • analyse the role of healthy and respectful relationships in the and experiences of family life portrayed in the documentary. achievement of optimal health and wellbeing. In addition, the documentary can be used to study concepts of deviance and crime. The study of deviance and crime from LEGAL STUDIES a sociological perspective involves ascertaining the types and degree of rule-breaking behaviour, examining traditional views The Cult of The Family can be used to investigate the ways in of criminality and deviance and analysing why people commit which the law and the legal system relate to and serve individuals, crimes or engage in deviant behaviour. particularly children, and the community. In addition, the Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: documentary can be used to study the administration of justice. • consider definitions of family and key influences on family life; Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to: • examine the ways people create and experience family life; • analyse the institution of family; • understand how laws are used by society to preserve social • explain the role that family plays in terms of influencing the cohesion, and to ensure the protection of people from harm and values and behaviours of family members; from the infringement of their rights; • explore the concepts of deviance and crime; • acquire an understanding of legal rights, responsibilities and • Investigate the threat a subculture or group may pose to the ways in which individuals can engage in the legal system; social values and culture of broader society. • understand the need for effective laws and legal processes;
• apply legal reasoning and decision-making to contemporary © ATOM 2019 cases and issues; • engage in analysis and evaluation of existing legal processes and form opinions about the operation of the legal system. 3 Teachers are advised to consult the Australian Curriculum online at https://www.australiancurriculum. edu.au/ and curriculum outlines relevant to their state or territory for further information.
The series is also a valuable resource for students undertaking certificate and tertiary courses in Children and Family Services, Community Services, Psychology, Sociology, Social Work and Media, Film and Journalism.
The curriculum in this study guide is organised into three sections:
• Before viewing The Cult of The Family – This section provides opportunities for students to engage in a discussion of ideas and issues rel- evant to the documentary series. • Close analysis of The Cult of the Family – This section of the study guide provides opportuni- subject matter of The Cult of The Family upsetting, ties for students to make a close analysis of the particularly some of the accounts of the treatment documentary series. of the children. Teachers need to provide students • After viewing The Cult of The Family – This with a safe and supportive classroom environment. section provides opportunities for students to It is important to recognise that some students may pursue further investigations of ideas and issues not want to share their responses to some tasks. relevant to the documentary series. In addition, students should be reminded that a classroom discussion is a public forum and that some information should not be disclosed in this The activities in each section promote student engage- context. If teachers feel students may say some- ment and active participation via individual reflection, thing inappropriate, a useful strategy to prevent this class discussions, and small group and team work. is protective interruption, which means interrupting Multiple activities are provided to allow teachers to students before they disclose, while at the same select those which will best suit the demands of the time informing them they can talk privately with the subject and the needs of the students. teacher after class. In the event that students do disclose personal issues, it is crucial that teachers Teachers are advised to preview the series before be aware of school and legal procedures for dealing showing it to students. Some students may find the with disclosures. © ATOM 2019
4 over three continents, Anne walks away without a jail sentence and just a paltry $5,000 fine. How did she get off so lightly? How did Anne main- tain a hold over her followers? And how did such a notorious group come to flourish?
The series tracks Operation Forest as it tries to uncover who Anne really was and how she recruited Dr Raynor Johnson, respected Melbourne University College Master, to co-found the cult. It investigates the role of Newhaven, a private psychiatric hospital that Anne used as a cult recruiting ground.
The series features interviews with Peter Spence, Head of Operation Forest and Marie Mohr, whose unflinching work as an investigative journalist forced Anne and members of the cult ++SERIES SYNOPSIS into the headlines.
The apocalyptic group The Family and their At the heart of the series is the story of former guru, Anne Hamilton-Byrne – one of few Detective Lex De Man, who wrote the report that female cult leaders – captured international triggered Operation Forest and has supported headlines throughout the 1980s and 1990s. survivors in their fight for justice right to the Hamilton-Byrne, a yoga teacher who some present day. followers believed was Jesus Christ in a female form, was glamorous, charismatic and as The series excavates the evidence gathered by many allege, a dangerous psychopath. From police and takes testimony from cult survivors, her base in the hills above Melbourne, she their relatives and those who are only now pre- recruited wealthy professionals to join her cult, pared to speak on the record. It probes the psy- including psychiatrists, doctors, lawyers, nurses, chology of love and loyalty, power and betrayal, architects and scientists. justice and truth to address the question – how did she get away with it? The series spans over half a century, digging deep into the cult of The Family and its duplicitous, al- Drawing on revelatory new research includ- luring leader. At the heart of her cult was a dark ing police interviews, cult movie footage and and terrible secret – a bizarre experiment to raise a interviews with survivors, The Cult of The Family ‘master race’ of children who would save the world tells the strange and shocking story of one of the after Armageddon. Along with her husband Bill, most bizarre cults in modern history. Anne was able to collect numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult mem- bers and others unwittingly handed over by single mothers – to raise as their own. Home-schooled in an isolated compound, dressed identically and with dyed blonde hair, these regimented children were controlled by a group of ‘Aunties’ under Anne’s su- pervision. In 1987, after one of the children escaped, police and community services raided The Family’s lakeside compound.
The children recount terrible stories of near starva- tion, emotional manipulation, physical abuse and dosing with LSD and tranquillisers, but Anne cannot be found. © ATOM 2019
Her disappearance sparks an international po- lice hunt. Can she be brought to justice? Despite Operation Forest, a five-year police investigation 5 Episode One synopsis Episode Two synopsis Episode Three synopsis
UNSEEN, UNHEARD, UNKNOWN A QUESTION OF IDENTITY IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE
In 1987 a teenage girl escapes from a A total of 28 children were brought The cult’s solicitor reveals enough remote lakeside compound. She triggers up by the Hamilton-Byrnes, hidden evidence for a warrant to be police and community services to raid from the outside world at their issued for Anne’s arrest and the property and rescue her brothers property on picturesque Lake Eildon, extradition back to Australia. With and sisters – a group of bleached-blond 240km north east of Melbourne. the assistance of Interpol and the children – from their isolation. Who are The children rescued from the cult FBI, Operation Forest tracks Anne these children? What is this cult called struggle to establish a ‘normal’ and her husband Bill down to their The Family? life. They discover they have been isolated retreat in the Catskill lied to about the identity of their Mountains, upstate New York and After Detective Lex De Man does his own biological parents. It’s a difficult arrests them. Anne pleads a heart report to persuade his superiors that this investigation to match DNA and condition but when one of Bill’s is not just a community welfare issue but discover the truth behind forged cellmates is murdered he persuades potentially a criminal one, police set up a birth records. Operation Forest is Anne to return to Australia to face taskforce, Operation Forest, to investigate. allotted scant resources for such justice. They are shocked by the potential crimes a complex case; sect members they uncover – children stolen at birth, refuse to be interviewed and their Their return ignites a media circus. physically abused and given mind-altering request for a Royal Commission to Anne hires a costly legal team to drugs like LSD. At the heart of this cult force witnesses to testify is quickly fight the charges all the way to is a dark and terrible secret – a bizarre declined. But police are determined the Court of Appeal. The maximum experiment to raise a ‘master race’ of to bring justice to survivors despite penalty is a $60,000 fine and a children who will save the world after the forces stacked against them. six-month sentence, but the drawn Armageddon. out court proceedings leave Anne They dig deep into Anne’s past pleading guilty to just one charge Episode 1 traces the formation of The and realise that nothing is as it and avoiding jail time, with only a Family (also called the Great White appears. She has adopted the name $5,000 fine. Brotherhood) by Anne Hamilton-Byrne Hamilton-Byrne (amongst others) and her co-founder Dr Raynor Johnson, and has changed her appearance The survivors of the cult are the Master of Queen’s College, University through cosmetic surgery. And shattered. How do they move on of Melbourne and a respected member Anne herself remains elusive. and rebuild their lives? Despite all of the establishment. Anne adopts the She appears to be residing in an the testimony they have given, the role of spiritual leader of The Family – a Elizabethan mansion in Kent in the system has let them down. The charismatic yoga teacher who uses United Kingdom, masquerading as series follows the survivors as they her charm, wiles and hallucinogenic part of the landed gentry. She seems meet their birth families and take on drugs to recruit Melbourne’s elite to be living a glamorous tropical the role of parents themselves while including doctors, nurses, lawyers and lifestyle in Hawaii. She is sighted still coming to terms with their own psychiatrists. in the remote Catskill Mountains stolen childhoods. in upstate New York at a property How did she control her enablers? How she has purchased near Swami Bill died in 2001 but Anne remains did seemingly reasonable people become Muktananda’s ashram. unrepentant. Now at the age of entwined in The Family? What were 98, she lives out her days in the they searching for? Former adult cult Then comes the breakthrough. dementia wing of a suburban members reveal why they were attracted Detectives discover falsified nursing home. © ATOM 2019 to Anne and the strategies Anne used to documents, providing the leverage maintain control over them, including the to force the cult’s solicitor to testify role of the private psychiatric hospital, against Anne and potentially secure Newhaven that facilitated the use of LSD. her extradition. 6 1 2
3 4 1: WILLIAM (BILL) HAMILTON-BYRNE 2: ANNE HAMILTON-BYRNE 3: LEX DE MAN 4: DR RAYNOR JOHNSON
++PARTICIPANTS
LEX DE MAN AFSM – SERIES save the world. To the sect she was Jesus Christ reincarnated CONSULTANT: Now in his mid 50s, Lex de Man was an in a female form. With funds secured from sect members, she ambitious 29-year-old sergeant in the arson squad when he wrote amassed an extensive property portfolio with homes in Kent, the report that triggered Victoria Police to set up a task force to England, the Catskill Mountains, upstate New York, Lake Eildon investigate The Family. He worked the investigation for the full five and Ferny Creek in Victoria. She is now 98 and living with demen- years of Operation Forest, uncovering details of illegal adoptions, tia in a suburban Melbourne nursing home. Anne Hamilton Byrne’s multiple identities, false land transfers and social security fraud. Lex was the only detective who worked WILLIAM (BILL) HAMILTON-BYRNE (1922 on Operation Forest from beginning to end. After Anne’s guilty – 2001): A wealthy, handsome English-born earth moving plea, he left the Force. He joined the Country Fire Authority for contractor and former Councillor in Traralgon, Victoria. Bill met the next two decades and was promoted to Executive Director, Anne Hamilton through Newhaven Private Psychiatric Hospital. Operational Training and Volunteerism. Since 2016 he has been He left his wife May to marry Anne and stayed loyal to her until CEO of Victorian Police Legacy, a caring organisation helping his death from kidney failure in 2001. families of deceased police members. Lex remains in close con- tact with many of the child survivors of the cult to this day. It is his DR RAYNOR JOHNSON (1901 – 1987): A highly unflinching drive to secure justice and desire to see the full story respected English physicist, author and parapsychologist who told that has made this series possible. grew up in a strong Methodist family in Leeds. He came to Australia in 1934 to take up the position of Master of Queen’s ANNE HAMILTON-BYRNE (1921–): Charismatic College at the University of Melbourne. After Anne met him in guru, yoga teacher and devotee of cosmetic surgery, Anne the 1960s he established The Family with her in 1963. His quest Hamilton-Byrne established an apocalyptic sect at first called The to link religion and science put him in contact with psychedelic © ATOM 2019 Great White Brotherhood, and later The Family, in 1963 with Dr luminaries like Aldous Huxley, Stan Grof and Timothy Leary. At Raynor Johnson. She wielded absolute control over her mem- the end of his life, Raynor was deeply disillusioned with the Sect bers. She set out to create ‘a master race’ of children who would he co-founded. 7 MARIE MOHR: Marie Mohr is an award-winning in- Leeanne reported The Family to the police. She was part of the vestigative TV journalist and producer who investigated The police raid on the sect property at Lake Eildon that removed the Family for a decade from1985 – 95. Her reports on the sect for children held there. She graduated from Melbourne University TV Networks 7 & 9 were crucial in bringing the story to public as a doctor, became a Buddhist and worked for a time in attention. She produced two documentaries and dozens of India. She wrote a book Unseen, Unknown, Unheard: my life media reports covering the sect’s nefarious activities including inside The Family. At the time of her death, she was studying Newhaven hospital and the use of LSD, the links in America psychoanalysis. and the UK and the fraudulent adoptions. She pushed hard to have the Hamilton-Byrne children rescued and produced many ANOUREE TREENA-BYRNE: Anouree was handed stories highlighting the systemic physical and mental abuse over to Anne and Bill when she was between three and four the children endured in an attempt to get them justice. She years old. She grew up at Lake Eildon not knowing that Bill was now works as a Series Producer and remains very close to the actually her biological grandfather, rather than the father she children from Lake Eildon. believed him to be. After she was rescued from Lake Eildon, she studied film at RMIT and taught English in Japan. She is cur- LEEANNE CREESE: Leeanne was the oldest child rently living in Scotland. at Lake Eildon and lived there for 16 years. She was the first to escape and together with Sarah initiated the rescue of her BEN SHENTON: Ben was raised at Lake Eildon from the siblings. She has two children who are both now studying at age of 18 months until he was rescued at age 15. Ben married University. Leeanne studied at RMIT and recently received a Rajes when he was 20, became the father of Ellie and Callum. scholarship to study Construction Management, which is the After 23 years in Ballarat, Victoria, during which six and half industry she works in as a Contracts Administrator. years were spent pastoring the Ballarat Potters House church, he moved to Perth in 2014. He continues to work as a project ADAM LANCASTER (FORMERLY ROLAND manager for IBM from his home office. His abiding relationship WHITAKER): Now in his mid 40s, Adam is the adopted with the real Jesus Christ underpins his success at raising a son of two prominent members of The Family. His mother family and service to the wider community through his member- Elizabeth Whitaker had a reputation as the cruellest of the ship in the Beechboro Potters House Christian Fellowship. After ‘Aunties’ who looked after the blonde children at Lake Eildon. decades of study focussed on understanding the personal, po- Since Elizabeth Whitaker’s death, Adam has formed close litical, social and spiritual factors that contributed to his family bonds with his birth family being torn apart by The Family and the practical lessons learned by successfully overcoming the consequences, Ben has started DR SARAH MOORE (1969 – 2016): Sarah Moore the organisation Rescue The Family to provide clear guidelines was one of the first children to be adopted and taken to Lake on how to guard against becoming entrapped in dangerous Eildon by The Family. As a teenager, she along with her sister ideologies that continue to plague our society.
1: MARIE MOHR 2: LEEANNE CREESE 3: ADAM LANCASTER 4: DR SARAH MOORE 5: ANOUREE TREENA-BYRNE 6: BEN SHENTON
2 3
5 6
1
4 © ATOM 2019
8 1 2
4 5
3 6 7 1: BARBARA KIBBY 2: PETER SPENCE 3: PATRICIA LEASK 4: FRAN PARKER 5: DR IAN WEEKS 6: ROBERT MACLELLAN 7:JOAN RADHA BRIDGES
BARBARA KIBBY: As a young nurse, Barbara was She became disillusioned with Anne’s treatment of sect mem- given LSD by Howard Whitaker to treat depression and he re- bers and left The Family prior to the police raid in 1987. cruited her into The Family. She married the sect solicitor, Peter Kibby whose evidence helped Operation Forest finally arrest DR IAN WEEKS: Ian Weeks taught Religious Studies, Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne. Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Melbourne, Yale University (USA), McMaster University PETER SPENCE (1954 – 2017): A former Detective (Canada), and most recently at Deakin University. In addition, he Senior Sergeant who served 21 years with the Victoria Police. has a research interest in Jewish and Islamic mysticism. He has He was transferred from the Major Crime Squad to head up published widely in journals, given lectures on Radio National the Operation Forest Taskforce and he argued strongly for a and acted as a judge in the Blake Prize for Religious Art. Royal Commission into the sect. After leaving Victoria Police, he continued to work in investigative roles with corporations and ROBERT MACLELLAN: Robert Maclennan is a former various other government agencies until his untimely death. Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1970 to 2002 and Deputy Leader of PATRICIA LEASK: Patricia’s mother was recruited via the Liberal Party from 1982 to 1985. As Shadow Minister for yoga into the sect and became one of the ‘Aunties’ who looked Police and Emergency Services and Shadow Attorney-General, after the children at Lake Eildon. Her mother left Patricia’s father he spoke in support of Operation Forest in Parliament and the and entered into a bigamous marriage with a sect member in media. the United Kingdom. Patricia was estranged from her mother because she feared for the safety of her own children. JOAN RADHA BRIDGES: Atlanta-born Joan Radha Bridges was 18 when she met the celebrity Indian Swami FRAN PARKER: In the 1960s, Fran was working in ac- Muktananda and went on tour with him from 1974 – 1982. She quisitions at the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne when was at Muktananda’s ashram in the Catskill Mountains, upstate © ATOM 2019 she started attending the lectures of Dr Raynor Johnson, Master New York when Anne bought property nearby and worked in a of Queen’s College. He encouraged her to join Anne’s yoga homeopathic clinic at the ashram. classes and through the classes she was drawn into the sect. 9 her experiment at Lake Eildon was in some way intended to put that right?
There’s an urgency for this story to be told. Surviving sect members are in their 70s and 80s, and at 98, Anne lives in a suburban nursing home behind a veil of dementia.
As we’ve seen with the emotional response to the Government’s apology to relinquishing mothers and the Stolen Generations, it is an empowering experience to have your story told and acknowledged in the public realm. ++DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I hope the series is a similarly positive experience for those who had the courage to speak out and reveal their stories. ROSIE JONES
I first came across this story while I was researching an ear- lier film, Westall ’66: A Suburban UFO Mystery. I discovered ++PRODUCER’S STATEMENT that one of the adult witnesses at Westall was a member of The Family and it wrecked her life. Her poignant story rekin- dled the fascination I’ve had with the sect since I first read ANNA GRIEVE about the police raid on Lake Eildon in 1987. I was amazed to discover that the full story of this incredible social experi- As a child, I grew up in the same street as the private psy- ment hadn’t been told before. chiatric hospital Newhaven and always wondered what went on behind the high hedge walls of that mysterious gothic Anne Hamilton-Byrne and Dr Raynor Johnson formed The mansion. Now I know. Family in the 1960s, when people were searching for new ways to make sense of the world. LSD guru Timothy Leary This story of The Family, Australia’s most infamous sect, was inciting people to ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’ and has its roots deep within leafy, conservative Melbourne. frontier psychiatrists were experimenting with LSD and elec- The name Anne Hamilton-Byrne and the image of the troconvulsive therapies. strange, blonde children will have particular resonance to Melburnians. But this story, which speaks of family and love In 1961 Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram began and loss, has a much wider reverberation. his famous experiments into cruelty and obedience, just after the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf (“I was just following As a society, we are only just acknowledging the long-term orders”) Eichmann began. Milgram found that a majority of suffering experienced by so many children separated from people would inflict potentially lethal pain on others because their birth parents and damaged by those who are tasked to they were told to by an authority figure. care for them. In a big picture sense this is a story of now, as survivors of child abuse demand justice. The Family’s Set against contemporary revelations of child abuse on a destructive influence continues to resonate in contemporary massive scale, it’s a rich but disturbing story about belief, generations. love and the notion of ‘family’. By delving into the dark parts of our collective history, the series explores what it is to be It has been an incredible, moving and emotional journey to human, capable of the best and worst behaviour. bring this story to the screen. We thank our participants who contributed so much of their heart and hard learned wisdom Our story is driven by Lex de Man, a charismatic detec- to this film. We dedicate our story to Sarah Moore, Peter tive who dedicated five years of his life to investigating The Spence, Elsie Johnson and all the others who have been Family. It took me a year to gain Lex’s trust and permission brave enough to take the journey with us. to tell his side of the story.
He introduced me to Adam/Roland, one of the sect children, and over three years of research, other former ‘children’, sect members and ‘insiders’ began to talk to me. What they told me was moving, shocking and profound, all at the same time. Their courage and resilience is inspiring and transcends this story.
Lex discovered that Anne was sent to the Old Melbourne Orphanage when her father couldn’t cope with seven © ATOM 2019 children and an unstable wife, who was hospitalised for 30 years as a paranoid schizophrenic. Stories of abuse at the Orphanage are rife. Could it be that Anne suffered there, and 10 ++BEFORE VIEWING
Ask students to answer the following questions:
- What is a family? - What is a community? ++TIMELINE - What is a sect? - What is a cult? 1963 Yoga teacher Anne Hamilton meets English physicist and writer, Dr Raynor Johnson and they found a sect Spend time as a class discussing students’ known as The Family. answers to these questions.
1968 The Family begins to ‘adopt’ and acquire children to Provide students with the following definitions: create a ‘master race’.
1978 Anne Hamilton marries William (Bill) Byrne and they Family: a basic social unit consisting of take the surname Hamilton-Byrne. parents and their children, considered as a group, whether living together or not. 14 Combined police raid on sect property, Kai Lama at A traditional family is a social unit con- Aug Lake Eildon. Anne is overseas. Bill is present at the raid sisting of one or more adults together 1987 but is not charged. The children are removed from the with the children they care for while a sect and placed into care. single-parent family might have one adult as the primary carer of one or more Oct/ Bill flies to Hawaii to meet Anne. children. Nov 1987 Community: a group of people living in the same place or having a particular char- acteristic in common or the condition of 12 Monbulk School fire – Detective Lex de Man is called to sharing or having certain attitudes and Dec investigate. He learns about The Family. interests in common. As with the word 1987 ‘family’, ‘community’ tends to have posi- tive connotations, but like ‘family’ con- June Lex de Man writes a report recommending Victoria tinuing loyalty may become personally 1989 Police commence a criminal investigation into The dangerous and limiting for an individual. Family. Sect: a religious group that is a smaller 11 Dec Operation Forest Task Force commences. part of a larger group and whose mem- 1989 bers all share similar beliefs. Sects are found in all religions. The word does 4 Anne and Bill are arrested in the Catskill Mountains, not have negative connotations in most June Upstate New York. contexts. 1993 Cult: a system of religious veneration 17 Anne and Bill are extradited to Australia. and devotion directed towards a par- Aug ticular guru or object. Cults are generally 1993 regarded with some suspicion as they often behave in a secretive way. Anne and Bill appear in the Victorian Magistrates’ 31 Note to teachers: While the title of the docu- Court, charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit Aug mentary series refers to The Family as a cult, 1993 perjury by falsely registering the births of triplets. throughout the series The Family is referred to as a sect. The use of these terms to describe 1994 In the County Court, Anne and Bill avoid prison and are fined $5,000 each. The Family could be the subject of a classroom discussion after students have watched the Bill dies, leaving Anne to lead a diminishing group of series.
2001 © ATOM 2019 followers.
2019 At 98, Anne lives in the dementia wing of a suburban Melbourne nursing home. 11 Viewing chart 1 requires students ++VIEWING CHART 1 to use the thinking strategy 5Ws and 1H to make notes about the series. What What was The Family?
Who Who were the people involved?
When When did The Family exist?
Where Where was The Family located?
Why Why did The Family flourish?
How How did The Family betray sect members? © ATOM 2019
12 Viewing chart 2 requires ++VIEWING CHART 2 students to make notes about some of - Description: list adjectives that you think provide - Impact: describe the impact that The Family had in the documentary participants. apt descriptions of the documentary participants. the lives of the documentary participants. - Connection: explain the documentary participants’ - Opinion: state the opinions that the documentary connection to The Family. participants express about The Family.
Description Connection Impact Opinion
ANN HAMILTON- BYRNE
BILL HAMILTON- BYRNE
DR RAYNOR JOHNSON
LEEANNE CREESE
SARAH MOORE
ADAM LANCASTER
ANOUREE TREENA-
BYRNE © ATOM 2019
13 Description Connection Impact Opinion
BEN SHENTON
BARBARA KIBBY
PATRICIA LEASK
FRAN PARKER
DR IAN WEEKS
MARIE MOHR
PETER SPENCE
LEX DE MAN © ATOM 2019
14 ++KEY THEMES The following themes are explored in The Cult of The Family. Three examples have been provided for each of the listed themes. What other examples can you add for each of the themes? What other themes do you think should be added to this list?
IDENTITY AND BELONGING LOYALTY AND BETRAYAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE
• The truth about Ann Hamilton- • The unquestioning loyalty of sect • The investigations conducted by Byrne’s identity. members, particularly the ‘Aunties’. Operation Forest. • The decision to and consequences of • Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s fear of be- • The extradition of Anne and concealing the identities of the sect trayal by sect members. Hamilton-Byrne. children. • The sect children’s sense of having • The pursuit of justice for the victims • The search for identity and a sense of been betrayed by their ‘parents’ Anne of The Family. belonging that led people to join The and Bill Hamilton-Byrne. Family. POWER AND THE LOVE ABUSE OF POWER
• The conditional nature of the love • The confinement of the sect children that the children received from Ann at Kai Lama and the excessive con- and Bill Hamilton-Byrne. trol of the sect children’s lives. • The need to feel loved that motivated • The abuse of the adoption system. some people to join the sect. • The physical, social and emotional • The love that the now adult sect hurt experienced by the sect children. children have for their own families.
++CLOSE ANALYSIS
Before beginning a close analysis of The Cult of The Family, spend time as a class, discussing the students’ interest in the series and provide students with the opportunity to ask questions about the series.
The Ted-Ed lesson ‘Why do people join cults?’ < https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-people-join-cults-janja-lalich> is a © ATOM 2019 recommended resource. The lesson consists of a Ted-Ed animation, a quiz and information about cults that is relevant to the study of The Cult of the Family. 15 ++EPISODE ONE: UNSEEN, UNHEARD,
UNKNOWN Dad’s heart. Drawing on the re-enacted and archival foot- This episode is titled ‘Unseen, unheard, unknown’. age and the recollections of Ben Shenton and Anouree Treena-Byrne, spend time as a class In a dramatised scene, Dr Raynor Johnson writes discussing what you were thinking and what in his diary, ‘From this date onwards, there was but you were feeling as you watched this sequence. little doubt in my mind that I had met my master.’ How is the audience positioned to view the raid? During the closing months of 1963, Anne Hamilton was gathering around her a nucleus of a dozen Leeanne Creese, the eldest of the children, in- people that would form The Family. Her work was formed the police of the abuse that she and her being done ‘unseen, unheard and unknown’. siblings were subject to at Kai Lama. In The Cult of The Family, she describes feeling petrified as she • Having watched the episode, what connections fled through the bushland surrounding Kai Lama, can you make between the title and the content until she reached a house, where she appealed to of the episode? the residents to take her to the police.
Episode 1 begins and ends with an account of the • ‘What was going on was wrong. Someone had Police and Community Services raid on the Lake to do something about it.’ – Leeanne Creese Eildon property Kai Lama at 6:00am on 14 August How does the director convey Leeanne’s fear? 1987. Why were Leeanne’s actions courageous? Explain the significance of Leeanne’s telling the • Child: They’re taking us somewhere. police constable that she would rather ‘sleep in © ATOM 2019 Woman: We realise it’s very, very stressful for the gutter’ than return to Kai Lama. you. Child: Where are we going? It’ll break Mum and The Cult of The Family links the founding of The 16 Family with a shift away from conservatism and a growing societal interest in alternative spirituality. Academic Dr Ian Weeks explains, Recommended link: http://adb.anu.edu.au/ biography/johnson-raynor-carey-12700 ‘In many homes if you had a dinner party, after you’d had coffee and port you’d go into a living The beginning of Johnson’s relationship with Anne room and you’d have a Ouija board and you’d Hamilton-Byrne is portrayed in a dramatised scene try and connect with spirits beyond. This was in which Anne cleanses the entrances and exits of really surprisingly widespread in the sort of the quadrangle at Queen’s College with a bunch of upper-middle classes.’ smoking herbs.
Dr Raynor Johnson was the Master of Queen’s • ‘It’s very clear that Raynor would have been College at the University of Melbourne from 1934 flattered by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, but Raynor to 1964. In The Cult of the Family, Dr Ian Weeks, a was naive. I think that she was cultivating, or student and friend of Johnson, explains Johnson’s grooming, the Master.’ – Dr Ian Weeks interest in spiritualism, ‘I can’t imagine really why he fell into her trap so quickly.’ – Elsie Johnson ‘He believed that he’d been chosen by a College Who is Dr Ian Weeks? Who is Elsie Johnson? of Spirits in the beyond somewhere, because he Using the above statements as a starting point, was a scientist, and would be able to speak to his explain Dr Ian Weeks and Elsie Johnson’s un- generation.’ derstanding of the relationship between Raynor Johnson and Anne Hamilton-Byrne. • ‘Raynor was a typical Edwardian English gen- • ‘I had been teaching yoga quietly. I had already tleman.’ – Dr Ian Weeks started meditation classes, that I came to the How does The Cult of the Family portray conclusion that I was very, very definitely going Raynor Johnson? Why do you think that the di- to have my school, for the physical, the mental, rector uses the archival footage of the opening and the spiritual control of the body. And from of the Raynor Johnson Wing at Queen’s College there I met Raynor Johnson.’ in March 1960 to introduce Raynor Johnson to ‘I had to start it. That was divine orders. That the audience? Explain the significance of the was my mission. That was the divine vision.’ – information about Raynor Johnson’s academic Anne Hamilton-Byrne © ATOM 2019 achievements at Oxford University and his work Why did Anne Hamilton-Byrne establish The at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge Family? University in the field of nuclear physics. 17 Former sect member Fran Parker refers to Anne as an enchantress, while Fran’s husband Dave Whitaker speaks of her ‘phenomenal presence’. Former sect member Barbara Kibby describes Anne as the ‘mother figure’ that she had yearned for when she was growing up. Barbara believed that if she could get close to Anne that she would achieve a sense of belonging. Roland Whitaker, who spent much of his childhood with the other sect children uses the adjectives ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ to describe Anne.
• Based on your viewing of Episode 1, whose view of Anne Hamilton-Byrne did you find yourself agreeing with? What adjectives do you think best describe Anne Hamilton-Byrne? • ‘We didn’t think of ourselves as a cult. I mean Members of The Family regularly attended meet- that would have been ridiculous.’ ings at Santiniketan Lodge in Ferny Creek. An ‘It wasn’t just random happy hippies. It was episode of current affairs program Dateline from Australian people who were hand-picked. 1971 titled “Secret Society” provides an insight Genuinely professional, successful people into the sect and its popularity. John Campbell is a that you might live next door to. And it was all former Sect member. Campbell explains that in the secret.’ sound room at Santiniketan Lodge he ‘recorded ‘This was a very, very gradual immersion in new every single lecture, speech, every word that Anne values.’ – Fran Parker uttered’. Drawing on information provided in The Cult of The Family and internet research describe the • ‘Neither have I betrayed any secrets to thine dominant values of Australian society at the enemies. Nor have I given thee the kiss of time The Family was founded? Judas. But like a thief, I pay unto thee.’ – Anne Drawing on information provided in The Cult of Hamilton-Byrne The Family and internet research describe how ‘We waited and we meditated and we waited Australian society was beginning to change at and we meditated and then eventually Anne the time The Family was founded? would come in from the back of the hall. When Given all that you have learnt about Australian she spoke, you listened. And what came out society, why did The Family flourish? of her mouth was very much worth listening to, What do Fran’s statements reveal about the believe me.’ – John Campbell reasons why people joined The Family? What do the archival footage and recordings Explain the significance of Patricia (Tricia) reveal about the sect and its teachings? Leask’s account of her mother’s initial associa- What were the advantages of locating the sect tion with Anne Hamilton-Byrne, community on the outskirts of the city? • ‘She taught this mishmash of Eastern religions involving an endless wheel of life and death and reincarnation, and the bad karma builds up and up and up, and it’s a bit like a toxic debt of a nation. It’s actually so big you can never pay it off, so you have to have somebody to cancel it out for you, and she cancels all of your karma at the initiation ceremony. So the only karma you’ve got left to work out is what you were born to work out in this life.’ – Dave Whitaker ‘We were brought up that we’ve had many millions of lives. And Auntie Anne promised us that this was our last life if we stood by her.’ – Roland Whitaker ‘Only one rule. Do absolutely everything she tells you. And that might range from what to eat, what to wear, what to think, who to marry, who to not marry. Everything. Total obedience.’ – Dave Whitaker © ATOM 2019 Why did Ann preach ‘total obedience’ to sect members? 18 Lex De Man is a former Victoria Police mission of the sect, detective senior sergeant. He first heard of The Family in 1987, when he was a mem- ‘Under the influence of LSD, Auntie Anne ber of the Victoria Police Arson Squad and had this vision that she’s got to collect all was investigating a fire at a school near these children from birth because one day Ferny Creek. During their investigation at the there’s going to be either World War III, or school, a local senior constable pointed out natural disasters galore where most of the popula- Roland Whitaker and told Lex about The Family. tion of the world’s going to perish. She was prepar- ing us for when the time happens, to re-educate • ‘His first words were “Don’t get involved. If you the world.’ get involved, it’ll be with you for a lifetime.’ – Lex De Man Sarah Moore claims that Anne Hamilton-Byrne Despite the senior constable’s advice, why did believed that ‘UFOs would come down’. Lex De Man ‘get involved’? How do the drama- tised scenes depict Lex De Man’s initial interest • ‘This is the moment of rebirth upon a new in The Family? In what sense was the senior planet. We’ve received the call and great things constable’s advice prophetic? will be done.’ – voice of Anne Hamilton-Byrne What did the children understand about their At one point in its history, there were twenty-eight role as sect members? How does the archi- children living at the Lake Eildon property. val footage of the children support Roland and Sarah’s claims about their role as sect • ‘As far as we knew, we were all Anne Hamilton- members? Byrne’s children. Well, fourteen of us were.’ – Sarah Moore To avoid scrutiny, Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne ‘Growing up it was Anne and it was Bill, they regularly travelled overseas. From properties they were Mum and Dad. And then there was foster owned in England and America. Anne directed her kids. They were kids of other sect members followers by telephone. Anthony J Leigh, a former that would either come up on weekends or sect child, explains, would stay there for stints of a couple of years.’ – Ben Shenton ‘With the sect, every so often they’d hit the news. Sarah Moore and Ben Shenton are former sect And when they hit the news in Australia, they’d children. Who did they regard as family when pick up sticks and move to England.’ One of the they were children? How does the archival properties owned was Broom Farm in Langton home movie footage portray family life? Who Green, a small village in Kent. were the Von Trapp children and why do you think Roland Whitaker makes this association? • Explain the significance of the archival home Why were the children made to look alike? movie footage of Broom Farm. What does the © ATOM 2019 footage tell us about Ann and Bill Hamilton- In Episode 1, Roland Whitaker provides an expla- Byrne and about their lifestyle at Broom Farm? nation of the role that the children played in the Do you think this was the intended purpose of 19 the home movie? • ‘The paranoia amongst The Family was just rife. Everyone thought that everyone was listening in to everything.’ – Roland Whitaker How did the scrutiny of outsiders impact on the sect children? Given the scrutiny, why do you think The Family was able to operate in the way that it did for so long? To what extent do you think the ‘handballing’ of information about The Family from Victoria Police to Community Services was irresponsible?
For most of the time, the children were confined at Kai Lama, separated from society. In Episode 1, Ben Shenton details a typical day at Kai Lama, highlighting the unrelenting monotony of the chil- dren’s routines, armour. But he did awful things. I mean when he ‘Around five-thirty in the morning we would be lost his temper and he beat people, he was savage woken up, there would be a Hatha yoga medita- and he was horrible.’ tion. And then set up the boys’ room for school. Beds would be rolled away, out would come the In Episode 1, Leeanne lists the prescription drugs school books, the trestle tables, all the chairs, that she was given on a daily basis, ‘I was given with a blackboard at the end. Seven days a week. Valium, half a tablet three times a day. Anatensol, With all of the vitamins laid out. School finished Tegretol, Mogadon and Valium every single day. 4 o’clock. There were showers, yoga, meditation. Morning and night.’ Dinner. Then there was homework, reading, bed. And that pretty much repeated, 52 weeks in the • What comes to mind when you think about year.’ your childhood? What are the characteristics of a ‘good childhood’? Why is a ‘good child- The children were cared for by ‘Aunties’. The hood’ fundamental to an individual’s health and ‘Aunties’ were sect members. In Episode 1, wellbeing? Leeanne Creese describes the nature of the care A recurring theme for children’s health and provided by the Aunties, ‘They starved us, they wellbeing is the need to feel safe and secure, beat us. They did all sorts of horrible things to us.’ both within the home and within the community Her testimony is endorsed by statements made in which they live. An ideal environment for chil- by Ben Shenton and Rebecca. Anouree Treena- dren to thrive is one free from neglect, abuse, Byrne acknowledges the impact of the abuse in her violence, anti-social behaviour and crime. admission, ‘Unfortunately, the relationship between *Note to the teacher: Spend time as a class the Aunties and ourselves was so catastrophic that discussing the sect children’s’ accounts of I viewed the Aunties, and all adults, as extremely their childhood. Allow students time to express dangerous people to stay away from.’ their thoughts and feelings about the way the children were treated by their parents and the Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne also disciplined the Aunties. children. Ben describes the punishment meted Why was the children’s access to the outside out as ‘absolute terror’. He becomes emotional world restricted? What were the consequences when he remembers Sarah being thrashed with a of their confinement at Kai Lama? belt buckle. Leeanne describes the contradictions What types of neglect, abuse, violence and inherent in her father’s behaviour, ‘I was always a anti-social behaviour did the sect children ex- Daddy’s girl, you know, he was my knight in shining perience during their childhood? Why were they subjected to this neglect, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour? How did this neglect, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour im- pact on the sect children’s health and wellbe- ing? How did this neglect, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour impact on the sect children’s development? *When you have watched Episodes 2 and 3, add to your answers to these questions. © ATOM 2019
Lex De Man describes the eerie experience of visit- ing Kai Lama in 1990 to gather evidence, 20 • ‘The owner of Newhaven became a member of The Family cult and that’s how Anne then started to use Newhaven as a recruiting base. These professional people who had gone ‘This was where some of the worst crimes were com- through a traumatic experience went to this pri- mitted, allegedly, against the children. I saw where the vate hospital so that it was discreet, so it wasn’t children were secreted under the house when those generally known, and when they were there evil police officers came, who the children were told being administered with LSD and then seeing would kill you if they saw you.’ – Lex De Man the figurine of Anne appearing at the doorway in a white gown, with a bucket of bloody dry ice • What insight do the archival police search stills behind her, and then when they’ve come out of and footage of the interior of Kai Lama taken the LSD experience, they actually believe that during the police search of the property provide she is Jesus Christ.’ – Lex De Man into the children’s lives? Why was the evidence Who was Dr John Mackay? What does the tel- gathered in this search important to the police evision interview with Dr Mackay reveal about investigation? the prescription and administering of LSD to • Leeanne Creese recalls the excitement of the chil- sect members? What insight does Lex De dren when their parents returned from overseas. Man’s statement offer about the reasons why This was the time when Anne and Bill would make sect members were given LSD? home movies depicting family life at Kai Lama. What are medical ethics? How did Dr Whitaker Why does Anouree Treena-Byrne refer to these and Dr Mackay’s actions breach medical films as propaganda? ethics? Explain the significance of Fran Parker’s state- Roland Whitaker’s misbehaviour resulted in Bill ment – ‘There was always the threat of the Hamilton-Byrne telling him to leave. He was placed in mental hospital’. the care of a number of sect families while his mother continued working at Kai Lama as an Aunty. The excessive nature of Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s control of sect members is exemplified by the • Given the children’s lives at Kai Lama were you accounts given by former sect members Barbara surprised when Roland Whitaker admits that he Kibby and Fran Parker. Barbara married Peter was ‘devastated’ when he was asked to leave? Kibby because Anne told her that she should. Anne questioned Fran’s decision not to leave her Dr Howard Whitaker was a sect member and prac- husband. Anne arranged an adoption of a newborn tising psychologist at Newhaven, a private hospital for Fran. It was only later that she became wor- in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. In Episode 1, his ried about the legality of the adoption. While Tricia son Dave Whitaker explains that his father wanted Leask was never a member of The Family, her to find a medium who would help him use LSD and mother’s involvement as an Aunty had a devastat- other hallucinogenic drugs to treat mentally ill people. ing impact, leading to the separation of her parents Raynor Johnson put Dr Whitaker in contact with Anne and the loss of the family home. Tricia broke ties Hamilton-Byrne. The use of LSD at Newhaven had with her mother because she was frightened that been authorised by the Victorian Health Department. her children might just disappear. Elsie Johnson, Bill Byrne was married with four children when he met daughter of Raynor Johnson also feared that her Anne Hamilton-Byrne. When his wife May Byrne re- daughter would be taken without her permission. fused to believe that their marriage was over, she was © ATOM 2019 admitted to Newhaven. Children in The Family were • ‘Anne would tell you to move to a different given their first clearing when they turned fourteen. It school, move to a different country, marry a was part of their initiation into the sect. different person. Every time the person did that, 21 then that reinforced her power over them. And smocks and jeans and the long hair and rib- I think she got her kicks directing people.’ – bons. It was beautiful, it was lovely to see. Dave Whitaker Richard Snare: Why did you start to take in the ‘They were so involved with these people that children? they’d be a party to anything.’ – Elsie Johnson Anne Hamilton-Byrne: Over 21 years, 28 young ‘When a child is born, delivered by sect doc- people went through our hands. tors, given to a sect nurse, handed to a sect Richard Snare: Why did you do that? social worker, and then taken straight out of Anne Hamilton-Byrne: I love children. the hospital and given to Anne Hamilton-Byrne, What do Richard Snare’s questions reveal you then start to understand the power that this about his view of Anne and Bill Hamilton- person had over so many people.’ – Lex De Byrne’s? How do Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne Man respond when he questions their decisions? What do these claims tell the audience about Share your thoughts and feelings about the Anne’s power over others? interview with the class.
Journalist Marie Mohr met the children a few years In January 1990, Operation Forest detectives com- after she started investigating the sect. menced interviews with the children rescued from Lake Eildon. Anouree was 19-years-old, Sarah was • ‘It took a long time to convince people that 20-years-old and Leeanne was 21-years-old at the there was a problem.’ – Marie Mohr time of the interviews Why do you think this was the case? Watch Marie Mohr’s interview with Patricia • ‘It’s difficult with dates, because our life was ‘Trish’ MacFarlane. sort of, we were brought up in such a stultifying Time code: 00:51:53 – 00:52:48:07 sort of daily routine. Every day was the same. Drawing on this interview, describe Trish’s Every weekend was the same.’ – Sarah loyalty to Anne. ‘By the colours of our aura, she could tell what we were feeling, or supposedly what we were The outcome of Lex De Man’s 1989 report rec- feeling or thinking.’ – Leeanne ommending that The Family be investigated for Spend time as a class discussing what you criminal activity was Operation Forest. Established noticed as you watched the interviews. in December 1989, several months after the report What do the excerpts from the police interviews had been submitted, Taskforce Operation Forest that feature in this episode reveal about the had three months to complete its investigation of lives of the sect children? The Family. In Episode 1, Peter Spence recalls opening a • ‘We had folders. We had my report. We had a box of files labelled “The Family 1971”. The files phone book. I think we had one car allocated. documented a television program put together by a That was the total resourcing for Operation journalist by the name of Phil De Montignie. Forest.’ – Lex De Man Was Operation Forest allocated the staff • ‘Very few people would talk. All the information and resources it needed to conduct an that I got came from people who – we called investigation? it a cult – had left the cult. The survivors told As you watch the series, make notes about me their endeavours to leave were met with Operation Forest. When you have finished being forcibly taken to Newhaven hospital and watching the series, write an evaluation of given shock treatment, which was not neces- Operation Forest. sary. The only thing that was wrong with them • Watch the excerpt from a Channel 10 interview was that they were beginning not to believe in with Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne and read The Family, and wanting to leave it.’ – Phil De the transcript of the excerpt. The interview Montignie was conducted in Hawaii by journalist Richard What did Phil De Montignie discover during his Snare. investigation of The Family? What did he hope Time code: 00:09:27 – 00:10:31 would be the outcome of his investigation? Richard Snare: No Aryan race. What was the outcome? What explanations are Anne Hamilton-Byrne: What’s this Aryan race given for this outcome? Why did De Montignie business? You’re talking about Germany, aren’t take the results of his investigation to the then you? Premier of Victoria, Dick Hamer? Why do Dr Bill Hamilton-Byrne: No, we didn’t want the Weeks and Marie Mohr believe that investiga- children to look alike, like the so-called Nazi tions into the family never went too far? children they’ve been labelled as. © ATOM 2019 Anne Hamilton-Byrne: No, I wanted them to look like brothers and sisters though, I must admit this. I love them, I love them in their little 22 ++AFTER VIEWING
Telling the story PRIMARY SOURCES - police evidence - audio recordings Primary sources provide a first-hand ac- TITLE SEQUENCE count of an event or time period and are Drawing on The Cult of The Family, ex- considered to be authoritative. The Cult of plain the importance of primary sources in What is the purpose of the pre-title se- the Family makes extensive use of primary documenting the story of The Family. quence? What mood is created through sources. These primary sources include: the use of images and sound in the title RE-ENACTMENTS sequence? How are images and sound - first hand accounts used in the title sequence to position the - photographs • When, how and why does the director audience? - home movies Rosie Jones use dramatised scenes? - newspaper reports and television cur- Did you find these dramatised scenes rent affairs footage effective?
++CREATIVE TEAM
ROSIE JONES WRITER, DIRECTOR ANNA GRIEVE PRODUCER AND CO-PRODUCER Anna Grieve has many years of experience as an award- Rosie Jones is an award-winning documentary screenwriter, winning independent producer and was Executive Producer at director and editor. This series is based on many years of Film Australia. Her productions cover all genres of documentary research and her most recent feature documentary, The Family with a particular fascination with powerful emotional stories of which premiered at the Melbourne International Festival in investigative history. She produced the feature documentary 2016 and was released internationally. It has screened widely The Family. Extensive production credits include large scale including BBC Storyville and STARZ in the USA. The Family dramatised documentaries films with Writer/Director Peter Butt won Best Feature Documentary with the Film Critics Circle of – I, Spry, The Prime Minister is Missing, Silent Storm and the Australia and Best Documentary Director at the inaugural Ozflix Logie award winner Who Killed Dr Bogle & Mrs Chandler? Since Awards. Her other films as writer/director include the feature 2008 she has coproduced Big Stories Small Towns, a participa- documentary, The Triangle Wars about an epic struggle over tory media project gathering local stories for a global audi- development on an iconic Australian foreshore (Best Australian ence and winner of the best community interactive at SXSW Documentary, Antenna Doc. Festival 2011). Previous documen- 2012. Credits as Executive Producer include Sundance finalist, taries include Westall ‘66: A Suburban UFO Mystery, an inves- Dhakiyarr vs the King and MobiDocs an award winning anthol- tigation of Australia’s biggest mass UFO sighting, Obsessed ogy series with the NFB in Canada. She recently produced the with Walking, an exploration of psychogeography with Booker- Indigenous feature documentary Croker Island Exodus finalist nominated writer Will Self, Holy Rollers, a wry look at Christian in the Deadly Awards, Foxtel Prize and screened Sydney and pilgrimage amid the tensions of Israel and Visions of Yankalilla, MIFF Festivals, FIFO and Real Screen Canada. In 2015 she © ATOM 2019 about an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a church in South co-produced Death or Liberty an Irish Australian feature docu- Australia. She has also edited numerous documentaries com- mentary and series and a musical journey into the dramatic and missioned by Australian and international broadcasters. heroic lives of convict rebels. 23 ++FURTHER INFORMATION ++CREDITS WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY BOOKS ROSIE JONES
The Family authors Chris Johnston & Rosie Jones published by PRODUCER: Scribe in December 2016. ISBN: 978-1-925321-67-8 ANNA GRIEVE Unseen, Unheard, Unknown: My life inside the family of Anne EDITOR: Hamilton-Byrne Sarah Hamilton-Byrne (1995a). (Penguin Books) BILL MURPHY ASE ISBN 0-14-017434-6.. Extract available online. The Spiritual Path Raynor Johnson 1972 (Hodder & Stoughton: DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: London) ISBN 0-340-15852-2 JAEMS GRANT SOUNDTRACK ACS COMPOSER: AMANDA BROWN The soundtrack of the feature documentary The Family (Rosie Jones, 2016) is available on iTunes and Spotify.
LINKS References The Cult of The Family – official website: www.cultofthefamily.com The Family: https://www.facebook.com/thefamilysect/ The Cult of The Family The Family (Australian New Age group): https://en.wikipedia.org/ Press Kit wiki/The_Family_(Australian_New_Age_group) (2019)
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