The Holy Ghost People: Film Analysis

Film Review 5 In the film “The Holy Ghost People,” right away we get individual accounts of what the “Holy Spirit” is to certain individuals. One woman says the Holy Ghost guides her and keeps her going. The people are very intense about their beliefs, which comes from the religion Pentecostalism, which has a hyper focus on personal experience with God and baptism with the Holy Spirit. We see them in their church, we hear the sermon, and see the ritualistic dances and the way the prayer overcomes them, and causes seizure like motions. We see and hear the prayers for the healing of one woman’s eyesight, and another woman’s back pain. One man, seemingly the pastor, says that “if God is not doing what they ask, people aren’t believing hard enough.” Later we get an account from a woman of how she was nursed back to health as a little girl brought her nutrients, and she believes it was

Anthony F.C. Wallace’s definition, “belief and ritual concerned with supernatural powers and forces,” can be seen in this religions praying for healing, not actual medical help, but requesting supernatural or divine intervention. Emile Durkheim’s definition, “religious effervescence, the collective emotional intensity of worship,” this aligns with their intense prayers, when they are overcome with the Holy Spirit, and have involuntary movements, this is certainly an intense emotion and reaction. This could also be applied to their speaking in tongues, or “glossolalia,” which we also saw many people do. Victor Turner’s understanding, “communities, or the feeling of intense social solidarity, equality and togetherness,” even though this church eventually split in different racial divides, in the beginning it was described as a place for everyone, of all races, very egalitarian and women held positions of power, this demonstrates the social solidarity, equality and togetherness Turner