Going Clear (film)

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
	Film poster
Directed by	Alex Gibney
Written by	Alex Gibney
Based on	Going Clear; by Lawrence Wright
Produced by	Alex Gibney; Lawrence Wright; Kristen Vaurio;
Starring	Lawrence Wright; Mark Rathbun; Monique Rathbun; Mike Rinder; Jason Beghe; Paul Haggis; Sylvia Taylor; Sara Goldberg; Tony Ortega; Kim Masters;
Narrated by	Alex Gibney
Cinematography	Sam Painter
Edited by	Andy Grieve
Music by	Will Bates
Production; company	Jigsaw Productions
Distributed by	HBO Documentary Films
Release dates	January 25, 2015 (Sundance); March 29, 2015 (HBO);
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is a 2015 documentary film about Scientology. Directed by Alex Gibney and produced by HBO, it is based on Lawrence Wright's book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief (2013). The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It received widespread praise from critics and was nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning three, including Best Documentary. It also received a 2015 Peabody Award and won the award for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.

The film deconstructs Scientology's claims by presenting a condensed history of the group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, examining how celebrities interact with Scientology, and highlighting the stories of a number of ex-members and of the abuse and exploitation that they described seeing and experiencing. The Church of Scientology responded vehemently to the film, complaining to film critics about their reviews and denouncing the filmmakers and their interviewees.

Going Clear was released in a limited number of theaters on March 13, 2015, and aired on HBO on March 29, 2015. It was a major ratings success and by mid-April 2015 had attracted 5.5 million viewers, making it the second most-watched HBO documentary in the past decade. It was subsequently released internationally, showing in theaters and on television despite a sustained campaign by the Church of Scientology to block its release.