Rosie Jones’ journey with The Family

In the lead up to this remarkable documentary’s screening, we talk to the film’s award-winning documentary writer/director and co-producer, Rosie Jones as she shares her thoughts on…

Finding the story

I first came across this story by accident, while I was interviewing a woman for another film. She told me she’d been taken to a psychiatric hospital for treatment during a stressful divorce and given electroconvulsive therapy and LSD. At the hospital she was introduced to Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a yoga teacher and leader of a cult called The Family, and before long she’d joined the cult. It was an experience that shattered her life.

Her distressing story reminded me of the eerie images I’d seen in the media of dyed-blonde children who were removed from The Family by police in 1987. They had allegedly been dosed with tranquilisers and LSD, beaten and almost starved by the cult in an attempt to raise a master race. To top it off, one of the co-founders of The Family was a respected physicist connected to the University of Melbourne. It was an incredible story that opened up questions around belief, identity, love and betrayal – and I was amazed to find it hadn’t been told in full before.

Reactions as she delved deeper unearthing new elements of The Family

I was shocked and disturbed as I heard about the damage the group had inflicted on so many of its members. Many were still traumatised by their experiences, so it took a long time to gain their trust. Once they started opening up, I was deeply impressed by how insightful and articulate they were as a result of the struggle they’d been through to build a new life for themselves after the cult. Ultimately their strength, resilience and good humour was very inspiring.

I was surprised to hear how deeply the case had affected the police who investigated the cult. They tried their best, but ultimately they could not achieve real justice for the survivors, and that is hard to live with.

I was also amazed to discover how far the tentacles of The Family reached into Australian society, from politicians and business leaders to medical professionals and academics. There were so many questions to address. How could this have been allowed to happen in the middle of Melbourne? Why did it take so long for anybody to investigate? How did Anne Hamilton-Byrne coerce Melbourne’s elite to take part in her bizarre social experiment? Why did she do it, and how did she get away with it? It was a massive task!

Finding and building a relationship with Lex de Man

Former detective Lex de Man was often in the media as a spokesperson for Operation Forest, the Victoria Police taskforce set up to investigate The Family. With his unusual surname, it was easy to find him but really tough to get him on board! He was very protective of the children raised in the cult (now adults) and determined that the story should be told properly.  It took me nearly a year to gain his trust, but once he decided that we were OK, he’s been an incredible advocate for the film and forthcoming book.

Working with the very skilled production team 

I knew this would be a challenging project. It was a big story told from multiple perspectives, to be shot on a very tight budget. We were interviewing fragile people who needed care before, during and after filming. There were lots of legal and copyright issues. I hadn’t directed drama before and we wanted to shoot some ‘recreations’, and of course, it all had to look fabulous. I really needed experienced people around me.

I hadn’t worked with producer Anna Grieve or DOP Jaems Grant before, but they had great reputations. They brought enormous sensitivity, passion, experience and generosity to the project – it couldn’t have been done without them. I’d really enjoyed working with our editor, Jane Usher before and I knew I could trust her strong story-telling skills and empathy for our interviewees. We had a great sound team in Mark Tarpey, Livia Ruzic and Keith Thomas and we were lucky enough to find composer Amanda Brown, who was perfectly in tune with the emotions and subtleties of the story. And I have to thank Dale Cochrane and John Mantovani who came in towards the end (due to some budget wizardry by Anna Grieve!) to shoot stunning aerials that give the film the space and air to breathe. What a team!

Reaction to being a MIFF Premiere Fund film in 2016?

Anna and I were ecstatic about being selected for the MIFF Premiere Fund. We saw MIFF as the perfect place to launch our story, one that developed and thrived in the midst of Melbourne. Most of our interviewees live in Melbourne or Victoria, so it meant they could be part of the launch as well.

The Family cult touched many, many people in Melbourne and we knew there would be former and current members of the group in the audience. It was very confronting for our participants to reveal their stories in public for the first time, but the team at MIFF bent over backwards to look after them.

The premiere was nerve-wracking and emotional for all of us but there was a real buzz and The Forum was packed to the rafters! We were thrilled to get a standing ovation with Lex de Man and some of the cult ‘children’ interviewed in the film on stage with Anna and me. In the end we had four sold-out screenings at MIFF – a very encouraging start!

The importance of telling the story of The Family now

The Family started in the 1960s but it still operates as a cult and impacts on many who came into contact with it and their extended families. At 96, Anne Hamilton-Byrne lives in a Melbourne nursing home, protected from prosecution under the veil of dementia. When she dies, there will be a fight over her assets; it is a good time to bring the extraordinary story of her cult back into the public domain.

The cult’s motto was ‘unseen, unheard, unknown” and it thrived in a culture of secrecy. On an individual level, it takes courage for our participants to speak out about their past.  For many, the experience has been confronting, but ultimately healing and transformative.

In a big picture sense, it’s a very contemporary story as revelations of child abuse on a massive scale force us to question how we responded in the past. Childhood trauma affects millions of children, their families and communities, and the police, welfare and emergency personnel working with them.

The dynamics of power and control in cults are especially relevant now with many vulnerable people entering the “cult marketplace” each year. Understanding how The Family worked can provide insights into radical groups that offer people a chance to reinvent themselves in return for total obedience.

Our film opens up questions around all these critical issues.

The Family screens in selected Melbourne cinemas from 23 February.