This extraordinary documentary truly tests the theory that truth is stranger than fiction. You would be hard pushed to invent a story as bizarre and outrageous as the life and times of Jim Baker (aka Father Yod) and The Source Family.
From the burst bubble of the hippie generation, they turned on, tuned in and dropped out of the late 1960’s in their droves. Many went looking for answers, and with this came the rise of spiritualism, communal living and the cults of Southern California. The story picks up around 1965. Jim Baker, the millionaire restaurant owner, war hero, judo champion and former strongest boy in America, is running the most happening restaurant in LA. The Source was a pioneer in organic, vegetarian eating and a fashionable celebrity hangout. The enigmatic Baker, having killed a man with Judo and spent time behind bars, had reinvented himself as Father Yod, spiritual leader of LSD-laced meditation sessions at the restaurant and guru to an ever-growing number of wide-eyed hangers-on.
As a general rule of thumb, cults don’t end well. Take Jim Jones, Charles Manson, David Koresh and Heaven’s Gate and we all know how those wound up. Although it stopped short of a mass tragedy, the story of The Source Family partly echoes the paths these groups took. Such was the influence of Jim Baker on his Family.
The film blends interviews with surviving cult members and some fascinating original home-made movie footage. There is such a wealth of incredible footage and photography of a time, place and state of mind that you can barely image these days. Harvest Moon, Sunflower, Orbit, Electricity Aquarian and the others reminisce about their wild ride with The Family, with a mix of fondness, nostalgia and sadness. At the centre of it all is Father Yod himself; self-proclaimed God with his thirteen wives.
Another curious feature of cults of this time is how the religious practices of the group tend to exactly align with the leader’s idea of a good time. And Father Yod’s idea of a good time was sex, drugs and rock n roll. When the Family left the restaurant and moved to a large house together, the beards grew, the white robes appeared, and then so did the rules. The further away from normal life the Family moved, the weirder things got and the more bizarre Father Yod’s behavior. The natural step at this point was of course to form a Psychedelic rock band, with Father Yod on lead vocals. Ya Ho Wa 13 toured with the full Family and released a bunch of experimental records in the 1970s. As the poster says; “God has a rock band”. Hailed in some quarters as groundbreaking, I hear a bad version of Can with Bobcat Goldthwait on vocals.
As the family up sticks and moves to Hawaii, you sense that the cult’s days are numbered. As Father Yod’s grasp on reality begins to fail and the finances eventually begin to dwindle, darkness begins to creep in around the edges of their self-made utopia. Filmmakers Maria Demopoulos and Jodi Wille do an excellent job of threading this bizarre story together in a clear and well-paced narrative. The film reserves judgment on its subjects, allowing the varied voices of former cult members and those who knew them, to explain the good and the bad of their strange world. Particularly touching are the interviews with Father Yod’s former wife, left damaged on the wayside by God’s will.
The Source is a wonderful film and the story of The Family is utterly captivating. And as sure as every good story needs an ending; the spectacularly ironic demise of Father Yod will surely blow what is left of your mind. Far out, and then some!
Catch The Source Family from Friday, July 12th at Gateway Film Center
8/10
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