Lord of the Universe
Lord of the Universe | |
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Directed by |
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Produced by |
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Edited by |
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Production company | Top Value Television |
Distributed by | PBS |
Release dates | |
Running time | 58 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | US$30,000[1] |
Lord of the Universe is a 1974 American
The production team of Top Value Television produced the documentary, using Portapak video cameras. The TVTV team followed Maharaj Ji across the United States over a period of six weeks, and edited a large amount of tape down to the fifty-eight-minute piece. It was the first documentary made on 1⁄2 in (13 mm) video tape broadcast nationally, and also the first independent video documentary shown on national public television.
The documentary was generally well-received, and garnered its TVTV production team the 1974
Content
The documentary chronicles Guru Maharaj Ji, the Divine Light Mission, his followers and anti-Vietnam War activist Rennie Davis at "Millennium '73", an event held at the Houston Astrodome in November 1973.[2][3][4][5] Rennie Davis, a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji, was one of the spokespersons and speakers at the "Millennium '73" event. His speech is featured in the documentary.[6]
Abbie Hoffman appears as a commentator in the documentary and addresses some points raised in Davis's speech, stating: "It's rather arrogant of Rennie to say that he has found God and has his Telex number in his wallet."[7] The TVTV crew interviewed different "premies", or followers of Prem Rawat, throughout the film, and one teenage boy is shown stating: "Before I came to the Guru I was a freak, smoking dope and dropping out – and my parents were happier then than they are with this."[7] In a later part of the film, a loudspeaker voice announces: "Those premies who came in private cars can leave now. Those who came in rented buses can stay and meditate until further notice."[7][8] Adherents of other belief systems also appear in the documentary, including a born-again Christian who criticizes devotees for "following the devil", and a Hare Krishna follower.[9]
A separate storyline is seen concurrently through the coverage of the "Millennium '73" event, involving a man named Michael who has come to
Maharaj Ji is shown in a scene in the Astrodome relating a
Production
The documentary was produced by Top Value Television (TVTV) in association with TV Lab, and was primarily directed by
At the end of filming, eighty-two hours of tape were edited to the final fifty-eight-minute documentary piece.
In 1989, the documentary was included in an exhibition at the
Reception
Reviews
Ron Powers of the Chicago Sun Times called the documentary "highly recommended viewing", and described it as: "... both as an example of skeptical, unimpressed (but never vicious) journalism, and as a peek into the future of television ... a clever, ironic and eventually devastating documentary".[25] Electronic Arts Intermix described Lord of the Universe as "a forceful expose on the sixteen-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and the national gathering of his followers at the Houston Astrodome".[4] Michael Blowen of The Boston Globe wrote that the documentary "captures the absurdity of Millennium '73", and that "The desperation of flower people alienated from politics is both touching and hilarious as they offer hope for eternal life to other converts."[26]
Dick Adler of the Los Angeles Times gave the documentary a positive review, writing: "'The Lord of the Universe' doesn't really take sides, which doesn't mean it's a bland hour trying to please everybody. Its considerable bite comes first from the material TVTV so carefully gathered and there from the artfully wise frame in which it chose to present it."[7] Deirdre Boyle wrote in Art Journal that the piece was "the zenith of TVTV's guerrilla-TV style".[10] According to Boyle's Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited, as in all TVTV tapes, everyone in the documentary comes across as foolish, describing the production's sarcasm as the "ultimate leveler" using equal irony "both with the mighty and the lowly".[9]
Katy Butler wrote in the San Francisco Bay Guardian that the TVTV style had improved since their previous work: "This show has fewer interjections from TVTV personnel, fewer moments that drag, more technological razzle-dazzle (color footage, slow motion, stop motion, tight and rapid cutting)." However, she described Guru Maharaj Ji and his entourage as "an easy target" and wrote that "anybody can look like a fool when a smartass wide angle lens distorts their face, and teenage ex-dopers who think a fat boy is God don't stand a chance". Butler wished that TVTV would move on to more challenging subjects for their future work.[27] Bob Williams of the New York Post called the documentary a "deplorable film" and "flat, pointless, television".[28] He wrote: "The hour-long program was remiss in not providing some small examination of the available box-office take of the goofy kid guru, much less telling prospective contributors how it got involved in spending how much of its foundation grants and viewer subscription money in such a questionable venture without more inquisitive journalistic endeavor, or ignoring gurus."[28]
A review in
Accolades
The documentary received the 1974 "Alfred I. du Pont/Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism" (
Credits
Production | Wendy Appel, Skip Blumberg, Bill Bradbury, John Brumage, Steve Christiansen, Paul Goldsmith, Stanton Kaye, John Keeler, Anda Korsts, Harry Mathias, Doug Michels, Tom Morey, Rita Ogden, Tom Richmond, Van Schley, Jodi Sibert, Elon Soltes, Akio Yamaguchi[4] |
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Editors | Wendy Appel, Hudson Marquez, Rita Ogden, Allen Rucker, Michael Shamberg, Elon Soltes |
Producer | David Loxton. A TVTV production in association with the TV Lab at WNET/Thirteen. also: (Hudson Marquez, Allen Rucker, Michael Shamberg, Tom Weinberg, and Megan Williams) |
Supervising Engineer/Videotape Editor | John J. Godfrey |
See also
References
- ^ a b Mella, Leanne (1994). "Set in Motion: The New York State Council on the Arts Celebrates 30 Years of Independents: On Television". Video History Project. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
- ^ Staff (July 1, 1974). "Wednesday: Lord of the Universe". The Harvard Crimson. The Harvard Crimson, Inc., Harvard University. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
- ^ a b Staff. "Video Preview: Lord Of The Universe". MediaBurn Independent Video Archive. 2006 FITV. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f Staff. "The Lord of the Universe". Electronic Arts Intermix. 1997-2007 Electronic Arts Intermix. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
- Thomson Gale, Farmington Hills, Michigan.
- From slogans to mantras: social protest and religious conversion in the late Vietnam War era. Syracuse University. p. 52.
- ^ a b c d e f Adler, Dick (February 23, 1974). "TV REVIEW: Videotape Explorers on Trail of a Guru". Los Angeles Times. p. B2.
- ^ a b c d Staff (November 1, 1991). "Distributed by Subtle Communications". Lord of the Universe, VHS. Subtle Communications, 1208 W. Webster, Chicago, Il 60614.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-511054-4.
- ^ JSTOR 776857. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
- ^ a b Shales, Tom (December 10, 1978). "Public Television -- Tangled Up in Tape". The Washington Post. p. H1.
- ^ a b c d e Popkin, Ray (Spring 1975). "What's Light, Quick, Cheap ... and Revolutionary?". Television Quarterly. 12 (2). National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: 54–57.
- ^ a b Staff. "Lord of the Universe". Video Data Bank. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ^ Gill, Johanna. "Video: State of the Art". Video History Project. Experimental Television Center. p. 1. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
- ^ High, Kathy. "On Reel New York". thirteen WNET New York. WNET. Archived from the original on November 30, 2007. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ISBN 0-89774-102-1.
- ^ a b c Staff (1974). "The Lord of the Universe". DuPont-Columbia Award. Columbia University, The Journalism School.
- ^ Goldsmith, Paul (Summer 1974). "Lord of the Universe:An Eclairman In Videoland". Filmmakers Newsletter. pp. 25–27.
- ISBN 0-8103-8871-5.
- ^ Grundberg, Andy (November 17, 1989). "Video Is Making Waves in the Art World". The New York Times.
- ^ Staff (April 10, 1992). "New On Video". Austin American-Statesman. p. 19.
- ^ Staff. "TVRO: Lord of the Universe (1974)". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ^ Staff. "The Lord of the Universe [videorecording] : Guru Maharaj Ji / for TVTV". Cruzcat Catalog. University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- Evening Times. Newsquest. p. 4.
- ^ Powers, Ron (March 16, 1974). "'Participatory TV Goes to Guru Gala". Chicago Sun-Times.
- Boston Globe. p. 31.
- ^ Butler, Kay (February 28, 1974). "Dissecting the Guru on the Tube". San Francisco Bay Guardian.
- ^ a b Wiliams, Bob (February 25, 1974). "On the Air: TVTV Illuminates the Ji". New York Post. p. 42.
- The Oakland Tribune.
- ^ O'Connor, John J. (February 25, 1974). "TV: Meditating on Young Guru and His Followers". The New York Times.
- ^ O'Connor, John J. (February 6, 1975). "TV Review; Videotapes Living Up to Star Billing". The New York Times.
Further reading
- Kahn, Ashley; Holly George-Warren; Shawn Dahl (1998). Rolling Stone: The Seventies. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 102–105. ISBN 0-316-81547-0.
- Kilday, Gregg (November 9, 1973). "Astrodome Loses Beer Odor to Mystic Incense: 20,000 Devotees of 15-Year-Old Guru Assemble in Houston for 3-Day Festival". Los Angeles Times. p. A4.
- Kilday, Gregg (November 25, 1973). "Houston's Version of Peace in Our Time". Los Angeles Times. p. S18.
- Kilday, Gregg (November 13, 1973). "Under the Astrodome - Maharaj Ji: The Selling of a Guru, 1973". Los Angeles Times. p. D1.
- Levine, Richard (March 14, 1974). "When The Lord of All The Universe Played Houston: Many are called but few show up". Rolling Stone. pp. 36–50.
- ISBN 0-8423-6417-X.
- TIME Staff (April 28, 1975). "One Lord too Many". Time. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
External links
- Lord of the Universe at AllMovie
- Lord of the Universe at IMDb
- Streaming video, Media Burn Independent Video Archive (mediaburn.org)
- Three-minute excerpt, Creative Commons License, Internet Archive