Title: Love Has Won
Year: 2023
Director: Hannah Olson
Country: US
Language: English
Amy Carlson (Nov 1975 - April 2021) was a cult leader who co-founded the "spiritual movement" Love Has Won in 2009. Amy used social media to gain her following, which peaked in 2020 due the pandemic. The leader believed she was a deity that was destined to take her believers "out of the 3-D world" and into higher existence.
Told in 3 episodes, Love Has Won is a documentary that explains the story of Amy Carlson and the nature of her cult group "Love Has Won".
Love Has Won is a fairly conventional talking head documentary, spliced with footage from the group's live-streams, but what makes this picture stand out is that we are supplied with testimonials from active cult members who still believe in "Mother God's" teachings. It's quite fascinating how Director Hannah Olson allows them to speak their mind as they are filmed with eerie objectivity.
The most riveting aspect from a narrative standpoint is when Carlson has clearly lost control of her creation, and she becomes robbed of her agency because her followers don't believe that "Mother-God" would need help from the "3-D world." From then on, we can only anticipate the worst is yet to come.
I was impressed by the documentary, but I thought they could have done better to explain the business side of the cult. Clearly a big part of Love Has Won was focused on selling merchandise & making as much money off of followers as they could. The narrative was quite compelling regardless and I certainly was treated to many "wtf" moments.
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