Dear Friends, Due to unfortunate considerations of time and cost, Backwards City is no longer a print journal. However, we will maintain our presence on the web that, however meager, we hope you might enjoy.
YouTube has a couple of clips from the film Jaimee and I watched today, Marjoe, the life story of Marjoe Gortner, who was recruited as a Pentecostal minister at the age of 4 and then, at 28, after a crisis of conscience, exposed the tricks and money-making techniques in a self-loathing 1972 Academy-Award-winning documentary. Here's an interview, but watch the film: it's as good a look at the spectacle and theatrics of preaching as any I've seen.
Our Netflix queue has been on quite a '70s tear lately: we also rented The U.S. vs. John Lennon, a fantastically charming look at the former Beatle's involvement in the peace movement—no YouTube clips, but here's the trailer—as well as Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst.