Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God
Directed by: Hannah Olson
Editors: Ana Veselic · Matthew Killip · Christopher Passig
HBO
LOVE HAS WON: THE CULT OF MOTHER GOD takes a humanistic look at Amy Carlson, a former McDonald’s manager who reinvented herself as “Mother God” and built a devoted spiritual community around her increasingly bizarre teachings. Constructed largely from the group's unforgettable archival footage and told through the eyes of Amy’s devotees (both former and still practicing), the series examines the dangerous pull of conspiracy-driven faith.
“Deeply reported, surprisingly empathetic, and revealing… makes the appeal of Mother God’s largely unhinged worldview legible… While cult docs often feel derisive or exploitative, Love Has Won plays like a tragedy.”
TIME
“The series deftly cuts back and forth from the emaciated shaman Carlson became to the young woman she once was, the manager of a McDonald’s in Dallas who tried ecstasy and apparently just kept on flying.”
Rolling Stone