![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTgwNzUwNjMtY2M4OC00YzMyLWJlOGYtMjRkNmY0MDViM2EzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR80,0,500,281_.jpg)
The Japanese cult behind a deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 is the subject of Aum: The Cult at the End of the World from filmmakers Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto. Editor Keita Ideno talks about how his bilingualism, previous collaboration with the directors and personal memories of the nerve gas attack influenced the film’s cut. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]
The post “I Was Struck by the Danger of Ideology”: Editor Keita Ideno on Aum: The Cult at the End of the World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Was Struck by the Danger of Ideology”: Editor Keita Ideno on Aum: The Cult at the End of the World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/6/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTgwNzUwNjMtY2M4OC00YzMyLWJlOGYtMjRkNmY0MDViM2EzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR80,0,500,281_.jpg)
The Japanese cult behind a deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 is the subject of Aum: The Cult at the End of the World from filmmakers Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto. Editor Keita Ideno talks about how his bilingualism, previous collaboration with the directors and personal memories of the nerve gas attack influenced the film’s cut. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]
The post “I Was Struck by the Danger of Ideology”: Editor Keita Ideno on Aum: The Cult at the End of the World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Was Struck by the Danger of Ideology”: Editor Keita Ideno on Aum: The Cult at the End of the World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/6/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYWI3YjUzNTctYmNjNC00MDY3LTkzNTMtN2YzNzA0NjY0M2EwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,26,500,281_.jpg)
There are few things more disappointing than a juicy subject with a dry documentary – like Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto’s “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World.” If one was to be generous, this could potentially be due to the duo’s relative prior inexperience. Despite Braun and Yanagimoto’s longstanding involvement in the film industry, “Aum” marks their first foray into the director’s chair. On one hand then, one could say that it is a laudable achievement that the documentary should be considered for Sundance’s prestigious US Documentary Competition. On the other, one could argue that it is all the more disheartening that their fresh eyes stick to the classic documentary script — which, for such a suggestive title, is a downright shame.
Aum: The Cult at the End of the World screened at Sundance Film Festival
“Aum: The Cult at the End of the World...
Aum: The Cult at the End of the World screened at Sundance Film Festival
“Aum: The Cult at the End of the World...
- 1/31/2023
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmRkOTNiZDAtYjRiMS00MGQ3LTgxZjgtZWI4MWUxNWM3MzA0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR265,0,500,281_.jpg)
Plot: A look at Japan’s infamous Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, run by Shoko Asahara, who claimed to be Buddha’s reincarnation.
Review: On March 20th, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released deadly sarin gas into the Tokyo Metro system. Thirteen people were killed, and another fifty were injured. It’s still one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks in Japanese history. The nerve gas used, sarin, was first developed by the Nazis during WWII. How did it end up in the hands of a doomsday cult? Director Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto examine this in their terrifying documentary descent into madness, Aum: The Cult at the End of the World.
Like many in the west, I was only vaguely aware of the Tokyo subway attack, but I didn’t know the story behind it. Suffice it to say it’s quite the tale, with Braun and Yanagimoto examining...
Review: On March 20th, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released deadly sarin gas into the Tokyo Metro system. Thirteen people were killed, and another fifty were injured. It’s still one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks in Japanese history. The nerve gas used, sarin, was first developed by the Nazis during WWII. How did it end up in the hands of a doomsday cult? Director Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto examine this in their terrifying documentary descent into madness, Aum: The Cult at the End of the World.
Like many in the west, I was only vaguely aware of the Tokyo subway attack, but I didn’t know the story behind it. Suffice it to say it’s quite the tale, with Braun and Yanagimoto examining...
- 1/30/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTI0NDhkYjktMTEzYi00NGQ2LWEyOGEtMmNjZmEwMWVjZjYyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
The success of long-format cult-exposé documentaries like HBO’s “The Vow” and Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” has given the cult-curious an appetite for the kind of chain-link explosion rhythms that only serials can supply. We’re primed, one might even say programmed, to expect the smallest new kink on even the oddest tangent to get ample screentime, and broader thematic arcs and major personalities to have multiple episodes over which to develop. Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto’s “Aum: The Cult At The End of The World” certainly acknowledges that there is a whole season’s worth of material in the story of the infamous cult, fully named Aum Shinrikyo, that murdered 14 people and injured 6,000 when they released sarin gas into the Tokyo subway in 1995. In trying to cram it all into one 106-minute package, however, the directors deliver a far-ranging but only fitfully revealing investigation into how Aum came into being and,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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“These kind of stories have sustained us for 25 years.”
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn set the tone at the First-Time Filmmakers Cocktail Party, presented by Canada Goose at Sundance on January 22. The original stories and perspectives from directors making their feature debuts powers IndieWire and the film industry, and IndieWire couldn’t be happier to celebrate them.
There’s something electric about new filmmakers meeting each other for the first time. At the three-hour event, hosted at the Canada Goose Basecamp on Main Street in Park City, “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World” co-director Chiaki Yanigimoto talked with “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” filmmaker Anna Hints, while Sing J. Lee arrived with the cast of his stirring film “The Accidental Getaway Driver.” Narrative filmmakers exchanged tips with documentarians, and everyone celebrated cinema.
Among the other attendees were Lin Alluna, Thembi L. Banks, Razelle Benally, Ben Braun, Jacqueline Castel, Mstyslav Chernov,...
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn set the tone at the First-Time Filmmakers Cocktail Party, presented by Canada Goose at Sundance on January 22. The original stories and perspectives from directors making their feature debuts powers IndieWire and the film industry, and IndieWire couldn’t be happier to celebrate them.
There’s something electric about new filmmakers meeting each other for the first time. At the three-hour event, hosted at the Canada Goose Basecamp on Main Street in Park City, “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World” co-director Chiaki Yanigimoto talked with “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” filmmaker Anna Hints, while Sing J. Lee arrived with the cast of his stirring film “The Accidental Getaway Driver.” Narrative filmmakers exchanged tips with documentarians, and everyone celebrated cinema.
Among the other attendees were Lin Alluna, Thembi L. Banks, Razelle Benally, Ben Braun, Jacqueline Castel, Mstyslav Chernov,...
- 1/24/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjAwMmM5OGUtZDVhZS00Y2QxLWI0NmUtYTk2ZDVjNmU3NjljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
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Aum: The Cult at the End of the World tells the lesser-known story behind the widely covered 1995 Tokyo subway attack, the largest act of domestic terrorism in Japan’s history where sarin gas was released in the Tokyo subway system during rush hour, killing 14 people.
Chiaki Yanagimoto and Ben Braun directed Aum, which takes a deep dive into Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult behind the attack, founded by Shoko Asahara, a self-claimed yogi who said he was the reincarnation of Buddha. The doc, which draws from the book about the cult by investigative journalist David E. Kaplan and Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Marshall, is told through the testimonials of characters like Fumihiro Joyu, a former Aum devotee who skirted blame for the attack, and Marshall, a British journalist living in Japan who early on rang the alarm bells about the cult.
Braun — who is the son and the nephew of Dan and Josh Braun,...
Chiaki Yanagimoto and Ben Braun directed Aum, which takes a deep dive into Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult behind the attack, founded by Shoko Asahara, a self-claimed yogi who said he was the reincarnation of Buddha. The doc, which draws from the book about the cult by investigative journalist David E. Kaplan and Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Marshall, is told through the testimonials of characters like Fumihiro Joyu, a former Aum devotee who skirted blame for the attack, and Marshall, a British journalist living in Japan who early on rang the alarm bells about the cult.
Braun — who is the son and the nephew of Dan and Josh Braun,...
- 1/22/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjIzYmFhZDctYzU5My00NTMwLWEzYzctYzY4YzU3YThlY2FmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,26,500,281_.jpg)
Sunday’s anticipated premieres include Drift, Flora And Son.
Heading into Sunday at Sundance studios and streamers were continuing to bid on Chloe Domont’s finance world psychological thriller Fair Play in what sources say could result in an eight-figure deal by the time a winner emerges.
The US Dramatic Competition entry has been the talk of the acquisitions scene since it premiered on Friday and MRC and T-Street have been taking their time mulling offers on the acclaimed feature directing debut that stars Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor as a newly engaged couple at a hedge fund.
After three...
Heading into Sunday at Sundance studios and streamers were continuing to bid on Chloe Domont’s finance world psychological thriller Fair Play in what sources say could result in an eight-figure deal by the time a winner emerges.
The US Dramatic Competition entry has been the talk of the acquisitions scene since it premiered on Friday and MRC and T-Street have been taking their time mulling offers on the acclaimed feature directing debut that stars Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor as a newly engaged couple at a hedge fund.
After three...
- 1/22/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjAwMmM5OGUtZDVhZS00Y2QxLWI0NmUtYTk2ZDVjNmU3NjljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjAwMmM5OGUtZDVhZS00Y2QxLWI0NmUtYTk2ZDVjNmU3NjljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
A generally compelling story with obvious contemporary and global resonances gets an unfortunately dry and surface-level retelling in Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto’s Aum: The Cult at the End of the World, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
The Cult at the End of the World still offers interesting details, especially at a moment when every other television documentary or docuseries seems to be cult-focused. But, especially in its homestretch, I felt like the film was awash in hastily defended conclusions and bad choices involving at least one key interview subject.
The film begins, in medias res, with the March 20, 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, a horrifying event that left 13 people dead, thousands poisoned and — if you listen to several interview subjects and don’t require corroborating analysis — marked the conclusion of the Japanese economic resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.
The attack was the final escalation for Aum Shinrikyo,...
The Cult at the End of the World still offers interesting details, especially at a moment when every other television documentary or docuseries seems to be cult-focused. But, especially in its homestretch, I felt like the film was awash in hastily defended conclusions and bad choices involving at least one key interview subject.
The film begins, in medias res, with the March 20, 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, a horrifying event that left 13 people dead, thousands poisoned and — if you listen to several interview subjects and don’t require corroborating analysis — marked the conclusion of the Japanese economic resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.
The attack was the final escalation for Aum Shinrikyo,...
- 1/21/2023
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGQ3ZThmYzItOWIxZi00YzgxLWFiMjQtOGVkN2U2NjJjMzBmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
It’s easy to understand why true-crime documentaries about cults have become so popular in a streaming age that depends on a constant stream of new (but reliable) content: Every one of these stories is different, and every one of these stories is also the same.
That double reality has seldom been more dramatic than it is in Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto’s “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World.” An American-Japanese collaboration that refracts the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway through local and global lenses at the same time, this well-sourced look back at the conditions that allowed for such a terrible act of bio-terrorism is flattened into an infinite hall of mirrors that shines a brighter light on the film’s own sub-genre than it does on the legacy of the Aum Shinrikyo cult itself.
Then again, it’s possible to see two...
That double reality has seldom been more dramatic than it is in Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto’s “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World.” An American-Japanese collaboration that refracts the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway through local and global lenses at the same time, this well-sourced look back at the conditions that allowed for such a terrible act of bio-terrorism is flattened into an infinite hall of mirrors that shines a brighter light on the film’s own sub-genre than it does on the legacy of the Aum Shinrikyo cult itself.
Then again, it’s possible to see two...
- 1/21/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
![Andy Marshall](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjE1ODZhNmMtOGNjYi00YWYwLWEzZTUtZWM0NTEzYzI5ZDJhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDY4ODc1MA@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR30,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Andy Marshall](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjE1ODZhNmMtOGNjYi00YWYwLWEzZTUtZWM0NTEzYzI5ZDJhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDY4ODc1MA@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR30,0,140,207_.jpg)
It would be inappropriate to call cults “entertaining” — they’re soul-sucking, exploitative enterprises that ruin people’s lives — but if you’re interested in learning about human behavior, particularly its extremes, there’s no denying that cults are fascinating. Not just because people can do, say, and believe outlandish things as a result of cult mind control, but because of the social conditions that lead people to join them in the first place.
“Aum: The Cult at the End of the World,” directed by newcomers Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto, certainly doesn’t shy away from its subject’s atrocities; in fact, it opens with their most infamous one. But where less adept filmmakers might have resorted to shock value or bone-dry moralizing, the team behind “Aum” works hard to understand one cult in all its dazzling, horrifying complexity.
To reel you in, “Aum” opens with the cult’s notorious...
“Aum: The Cult at the End of the World,” directed by newcomers Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto, certainly doesn’t shy away from its subject’s atrocities; in fact, it opens with their most infamous one. But where less adept filmmakers might have resorted to shock value or bone-dry moralizing, the team behind “Aum” works hard to understand one cult in all its dazzling, horrifying complexity.
To reel you in, “Aum” opens with the cult’s notorious...
- 1/21/2023
- by Lena Wilson
- The Wrap
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDQ4MDhkZjctYjhjMS00NDViLWFlNGMtMjMyMWI5ZWU4MjAyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,26,500,281_.jpg)
Saturday premieres include William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth follow-up Eileen.
Multiple offers from studios and streamers are understood to have come in for Chloe Domont’s Sundance finance thriller Fair Play following the world premiere on Friday.
The film about a promotion at a New York hedge fund that pushes two newly engaged employees to the edge stars Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor and screens again in US Dramatic Competition today (January 21) to public and P&i.
Fair Play hails from the partnership between MRC and Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street to support emerging directors, and Star Thrower Entertainment.
Multiple offers from studios and streamers are understood to have come in for Chloe Domont’s Sundance finance thriller Fair Play following the world premiere on Friday.
The film about a promotion at a New York hedge fund that pushes two newly engaged employees to the edge stars Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor and screens again in US Dramatic Competition today (January 21) to public and P&i.
Fair Play hails from the partnership between MRC and Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street to support emerging directors, and Star Thrower Entertainment.
- 1/21/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTY4NzE4YjMtNGQ4Mi00MzEzLWJiNTctODI3NmYwMTUzM2EyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
Exclusive: Former Netflix exec Janice Lee has joined Fifth Season as Vice President, Film Development and Production, with longtime team member Kara Duncan being promoted to the same role. The news comes as the global film and TV studio, formerly known as Endeavor Content, kicks off the year with four films heading to Sundance and another two soon heading to theaters.
As members of the team led by EVP, Film Development and Production, Alexis Garcia, Lee and Duncan will be responsible for expanding the studio’s slate of indie and big- budget features, made with top-tier talent for distribution on streaming platforms and in theaters. The pair will report to SVPs, Film Development and Production, Dan Guando and Negeen Yazdi.
After seeing major success at Sundance 2022 with Cha Cha Real Smooth, the Cooper Raiff Audience Award winner that went to Apple in the largest sale of the festival, Fifth Season...
As members of the team led by EVP, Film Development and Production, Alexis Garcia, Lee and Duncan will be responsible for expanding the studio’s slate of indie and big- budget features, made with top-tier talent for distribution on streaming platforms and in theaters. The pair will report to SVPs, Film Development and Production, Dan Guando and Negeen Yazdi.
After seeing major success at Sundance 2022 with Cha Cha Real Smooth, the Cooper Raiff Audience Award winner that went to Apple in the largest sale of the festival, Fifth Season...
- 1/18/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmM4MzA0YjYtNTY5Ni00NzU4LTk2ZDQtNzlmODI0N2ViYmUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmM4MzA0YjYtNTY5Ni00NzU4LTk2ZDQtNzlmODI0N2ViYmUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
It’s been three years since Hollywood touched down in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, with the 2023 fest offering a hybrid format of both in-person and online attendance after two years of purely digital incarnations. While the virtual festivals still produced major sales — 2021’s Coda being the most noteworthy — the overall market has lagged, with dealmaking continuing into the months after the close of the festival and mid-range deals becoming scarcer. Sellers are particularly excited for the return of in-person premieres, hoping that this will mean a return to urgency, if not a return to all-night bidding wars.
Here are this year’s titles that are sure to entice buyers, whether they are sitting in the Eccles or on their couch at home.
Aum: The Cult at the End of the World
Directors Ben Braun, Chiaki Yanagimoto
Buzz The doc, which could satisfy a streamer’s true crime or nonfiction thriller needs,...
Here are this year’s titles that are sure to entice buyers, whether they are sitting in the Eccles or on their couch at home.
Aum: The Cult at the End of the World
Directors Ben Braun, Chiaki Yanagimoto
Buzz The doc, which could satisfy a streamer’s true crime or nonfiction thriller needs,...
- 1/18/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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