Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Watch Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) online on iFILM — the HBO documentary directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, drawn from Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. Wright spent two years gathering testimony from former high-ranking members who had previously been legally silenced.

Eight ex-insiders speak on camera: how the organisation recruits and retains true believers, how it controls information, how it handles defectors, and what the celebrity tier — Tom Cruise and John Travolta prominently — actually looks like from the inside. Gibney's method is forensic rather than sensational: court records, internal documents, and first-person accounts laid out without embellishment.

The film aired on HBO and took home three Emmy Awards. For a documentary subject that attracts plenty of heat and little rigour, this one does the work. Stream Going Clear on iFILM.