Tonight: Cinema Society brings controversial documentary to town

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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The Asheville Cinema Society will screen Kumaré: The True Story of a False Prophet on Tuesday, September 4.  The film begins at 7:15 PM at the Asheville Community Theatre on 35 East Walnut St.  Advance tickets are available online and remaining seats will be sold inside the Theatre lobby beginning at 6:45.

From the press release:

Brooklyn filmmaker Vikram Ghandi grew up practicing Hinduism like the rest of his family. In his late teens and early twenties he became disillusioned with the growing number of people following “spiritual gurus”. Suspicious that many of these gurus only want to take the money of those seeking spiritual guidance in life, Vikram decided to expose this deception. He grew his hair and beard very long, adopted an accent, created his own yoga positions, moved to Phoenix where no one knew him, and became the spiritual guru Kumare.

The goal was to show how easy it is for someone to adopt a cult following. He succeeds, but as his followers become even more connected to Kumare, Vikram knows the day is looming that he must reveal himself. There are several funny moments throughout the film along with serious moral, ethical, and spiritual realizations for the players and the audience.

The 84 minute film won the Best Documentary Feature Audience Award at SXSW in 2011 .  It is unrated, but has some mild adult language on par with a PG-13 feature.