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Loan Terms:

Circulating

Status:

IN

V1608

Holy Ghost People

Adair, Peter

Title:

Holy Ghost People

Director:

Adair, Peter

Description:

1/2 in., VHS, NTSC.   viewing copy.   1 videocassette of 1.
52 minutes.   b/w.   sound.  

Country:

USA

Year:

1968

Language:

English

Genre:

Documentary

Notes:

Transferred from UC Archive 16mm film print. "A white Pentecostal religious group in Appalachia whose members handle poisonous snakes, drink strychnine, and speak in tongues, follow the literal interpretation of the Biblical passage: 'In my name they shall speak in new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them.' Filmed during a four-hour meeting, the congregation is exhorted by an evangelist, and members tell of revelations they have experienced through communication with the Holy Ghost. As the meeting proceeds, some of the congregation begin to pray, dance, and speak in tongues; several members collapse in trance-like states. At the height of the meeting, boxes of rattlesnakes and copperheads are brought in, and the people pick them up, throw them to one another, and sing. The leader of the group takes a rattlesnake from a box and is bitten. He explains that he has been bitten before and says that if he dies it is God's will. As the meeting continues, we see the man's hand and arm swelling. At this point the film ends. The filmmaker, Peter Adair, says that the man survived" (Films for Anthropological Teaching, 7th Ed., 1983).

Link to:

FII catalog |