The Jonestown Project, Hour 8
by James Belflower & Anne Heide
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The creation of this project took place over a single twenty-four hour period on November 18 2008, the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana, South America. Anne Heide and I, James Belflower, synchronized our writing at 1:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the beginning of the final day, thirty years ago, of almost every individual living in the Jonestown community. The project was generated using a variety of constraints. The first was that we were required to write for 24 hours straight, pausing only for brief breaks for food and restroom. Second, we wrote within the same manuscript, simultaneously using Google Documents. This was our only form of communication throughout the day. Third, we shot video of the entire day. Fourth, we audio recorded the entire writing process and were required to speak, out loud, the words and phrases we wrote, as they were written. Fifth, there was to be no revision of the manuscript after the day was over. What was written in that time was what manifested as this project. Sixth, the project, though heavily researched prior to writing, was written entirely from the memories of that research. Finally, the "Jonestown Death Tape" was played on continuous loop in the room where we wrote for the entire 24 hours. What you are seeing, hearing and reading is a portion of the hour from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. of November 18, 2008.