Thinking of Leaving? Guide for Your Journey

You can find here a document provided by Olive Leaf Network that will give you precious insight into how to leave. You can download it by clicking on it.

You’ll also find documentaries can be a powerful window to truth, knowledge, and empowerment. Former members of high-control religions, as well as journalists, filmmakers, and outsiders who support advocacy efforts have produced informative documentaries to share their stories and uncover what leaders of cults and high-control religious groups would like to keep hidden from their members and the rest of the world.

Below are some documentaries which have been helpful for former members or for those thinking of leaving. Your journey is your own. But, these recommended resources may be useful to you.

Click on a documentary title to link to an external website where you can watch it free of charge.

Consider watching these documentaries for yourself. Ask yourself what it is that others don’t want you to hear, see, or know. Each documentary’s producer and participant stories, opinions, and views are their own and do not necessarily reflect the values, positions, or policies of Brave Horizons Network.

Documentaries About the Exclusive Brethren, or PBCC

Veracity: Breaking Brethren

  • Produced by: CityNews Toronto (CityTV)

  • Released on: March 22, 2022

  • Featuring: Caroline Cherry, Mike Heggie, Christy Heggie, Richard Marsh, & Dennis Wragge

  • Focus:

Doctrine that Divides

  • Produced by: BBC Omnibus

  • Released on: September 26, 1976

  • Featuring: James Christie, Stella Christie, Roger Stott, Glynis Ward

  • Focus: PBCC’s Doctrine of Separation, following the “1970 Aberdeen Incident”

Big Brethren, a Four Corners Episode

  • Produced by: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

  • Released on: September 15, 2025

  • Featuring: Cheryl Bawtinheimer, Cassie Davies, Mick Dover, Damien Hastie, Richard Marsh, Lavinia Richardson, Trent Waskey, Ben Woodbury

  • Focus: PBCC’s Business Organization, Family Separation Tactics, Intense Surveillance, Psychological Manipulation, Rules and Restrictions, ATO Raid, and 2025 Election Interference

Leaving the Exclusive Brethren, a 60 Minutes Episode

  • Produced by: TV3 New Zealand/Media Works

  • Released on: December 7, 2009

  • Featuring: Craig Hoyle

  • Focus: PBCC’s Homophobia, Forced Conversion Therapy, Forced Excommunication

Exposing the Exclusive Brethren, a Today Tonight Episode

  • Produced by: Channel Seven / Seven Network Australia

  • Released on: March 8, 2010

  • Featuring: Craig Hoyle

  • Focus: PBCC’s Cult-like Practices, Doctrine of Separation, Religious Quarantine, Shunning

Documentaries About Other High Control-Religious Groups

Daughters of the Cult

  • Produced by: ABC News Studios, Main Event Media, All3Media

  • Released on: January 4, 2024

  • Featuring: Anna LeBaron & Celia K. LeBaron, Daughters of Ervil LeBaron

  • Focus: Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God (“The Mormon Manson”)

Gloriavale: New Zealand’s Secret Cult

  • Produced by: Gloriavale Film Pty, Grade A Films Ltd

  • Released on: August 17, 2022

  • Featuring: Virginia Courage, Janina Kitchen, John Ready, Sharon Ready

  • Focus: Gloriavale Christian Community, aka Cooperites

Hillsong: A Mega Church Exposed

  • Produced by: Breaklight Pictures, for Discovery+

  • Released on: March 24, 2022

  • Featuring: Anna Crenshaw, Jacob Harrison, Janice Lagata, Joe Sanders, & Joyana Santini

  • Focus: Hillsong Church, aka Hillsong Christian Life Centre

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

  • Produced by: Ark Media & Participant, for Netflix

  • Released on: June 8, 2022

  • Featuring: Rebecca Musser, Elissa Wall, Myrna Wall

  • Focus: FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath

  • Produced by: Imagine Entertainment, Disarming Films, Artemis Rising Foundation, and Showtime Documentary Films, for Showtime

  • Released on: September 18, 2015

  • Featuring: Leah Remini, Mike Rinder

  • Focus: Church of Scientology

Prophet’s Prey

  • Produced by: Intellectual Property Corporation & No Seriously Productions, for A&E Network

  • Released on: November 29, 2016-August 26, 2019

  • Featuring: Ross Chatwin; Annette, Brent, Isaac, Janetta, and Wallace Jeffs, Ron Rohbock

  • Focus: FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

*The PBCC related documentaries are available free of charge by clicking the title links, but the Non-PBCC related documentaries are on streaming services, with free previews with title links.