Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.The Aptly-Named: Holy HellDirector Will Allen made this doc about his own 20-year stint in a West Hollywood-based cult led by–it’s true–a former adult film performer.
Comprised of interviews of former members, as well as copious home video footage shot by Allen, Holy Hell examines the rise of the Buddhafield, a combination of environmentalist commune and spiritual movement.
For gay men enduring the pain of the AIDS epidemic in the late 80s and early 1990s, it offers an accepting reprieve from an otherwise hostile religious landscape.