Holy Ghost People

This is a great ethnographic film that lets its subjects speak for themselves. Instead of depicting pentecostal Christians as outside "normal" Christianity, it portrays their humanity in their care for one another, their egalitarian organization, the sensory/emotional depth of their experience, and the beauty of their music, dance and testimony. My students (anthropology of religion) immediately saw connections to Durkheim (collective effervescence), Carnival (permission to break from everyday norms), the sensibilities of Burning Man (spontaneity, no spectators, self-reliance, personalization of religious/spiritual experience) Marcel Mauss (reciprocity), and Max Weber (the Protestant work ethic: "the sin of idleness"). I strongly disagree with the professed anthropologist above who characterized the subjects as "deviant." This plays into normative/dominant notions of "good" religion as emotionally controlled, non-spontaneous, and yoked to norms of middle class citizenship. Anthropologists should know that religious experience is infinitely varied and no single variation is "normal."

This little film is a first rate documentation of a snake handling worship service in southern appalachia shot in the early sixties. The filmakers journey to a small town in West Virginia and interview several of the people involved who havebeen saved. This simple film is respectfully done and the testimonies of these people alone might make a believer of you. If you can find it, rent it and be amazed by the power of the Spirit at work in these lives!

I was the sound recordist for Peter Adair's film "The Holy Ghost People" and we spent one Summer and Fall filming their services each weekend. There is no question in my mind that most of the worshipers were completely genuine in their beliefs and actions. The few who weren't so sure of their faith were fairly obvious.

It was a powerful experience I will never forget it. I'm not about to become a Pentecostal Christian nor practice my belief the way they did, but I was was deeply affected by their sincerity and spirituality.

I have shot film all over the world and I have never experienced more friendliness and hospitality than we did on location in Scrabble Creek and Gauley Bridge, WVA in 1966.

This film puts the viewer inside the Holiness Church where poison-drinking, snake handling and speaking in tongues are a normal part of worship. I am an anthropologist and I use this as a teaching tool for my students when we discuss religion. I challenge them to explain what functions religion serves for these people and why they are more deviant than any other religion. it is excellent.

.....then by all means let me know directly at the above e-mail address so that I may arrange for a copy for you. This gritty, startling documentary by Peter Adair brings you so unnervingly close to the actual holy-ghost consciousness that you'll almost feel as though the people in question are breathing down your neck in all their shrieking, convulsive, snake-handling glory. What a spectacle! By the time the copperheads and rattlesnakes start flying about the room, you won't believe your eyes (or ears, for that matter) if you hadn't reached that point already. 'Holy Ghost People' is guaranteed to satisfy anyone's appetite for Mondo-movie-style bizarreness.