Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Ryan Sutter and I created this documentary release pitch video for our Witness Underground documentary which is now available to stream on Tubi TV and Amazon.
Check out WitnessUnderground.com for all streaming options and official store.
Buy our Blu-Ray and Motion Picture Soundtrack 2 Vol CD.
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCnXbnuEB0iwtpY_Dl_Q9KdA/join
Watch Witness Underground Documentary for FREE on TUBI TV. Within the confines of an elusive cult, a vibrant alternative music community thrived, deprogramming themselves through art. Poignant live performances punctuate tragic losses to beautifully illuminate shunning by Jehovah's Witnesses.
FREE on TUBI TV
tubitv.com/movies/100018684/witness-underground
A compelling cult documentary of 2024, chronicling the journey of JWs through their transformative experience navigating the depths of underground music culture while being profoundly influenced by a cult. A gripping tale of Jehovah's Witnesses escaping the cult, surviving the realities of shunning, and find their voices.
The only documentary to humanize cult life & survival via self-expression, musicians triumph over trauma from coerced shunning.
"Jarring, heartbreaking, infuriating ...Movie score 8/10." [Film Threat]
"Advocacy with a megaphone" [Bad ASSociation Podcast - Chev Clark]
Witness resilience, escape, & healing through poignant original music.
"Shunning beautifully illuminated" [Chris Gray - Freestyle Distribution]
Rate and review on IMDb, TMDb, & Amazon
IMDb - 9.5/10! - Help keep it extraordinarily high!
imdb.com/title/tt15215562
TMDb - Leave a Review
themoviedb.org/movie/829437-witness-underground
Amazon - Boost the algorithm with a review.
amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0CVGPPFZ5
Genres:
Social Impact Documentary, Cult, Documentary | Arts and Culture,
Social Issues, Music and Performances, Informational & Educational, Music Documentary
Short Synopsis:
Witness Underground is a documentary that reveals the insular DIY artist community that emerged within a religious cult in Minneapolis. Music, fame, and success are typically forbidden in this group, which instructs its members to “beware of independent thinking.”
The artists at the heart of the music scene have their faith tested. They battle for mental health and push the boundaries of their religion’s norms, where leaving means being banned from interacting with your entire family and social circle for life.
Although severely restricted, they create the record label Nuclear Gopher and produced over 30 albums of earnest and personal music that spans: singer/songwriter, riot grrrl, psychedelic rock, pop, EDM, shoegaze, and post-rock. Carefully curated performances punctuate their stories of friendship, deep loss, and personal growth.
Long Pitch:
In suburban Minneapolis, upstanding Jehovah’s Witnesses are arriving home after hours of doorbell ringing and front doors slamming.
But not Cindy, or the elder staring down this teenager.
Or the man she lost her virginity to hours ago in a hotel.
“Did you start it? Did you touch him?”, the elder asks.
“Did you have an orgasm?”
She played a show that week. A coffee shop Witnesses flocked to.
She plucked strings to her pop-punk anthem.
She belted out the words her spirit had tried to hide.
Her "Prayer To No One" ricocheted off the walls to a riveted crowd.
They wanted an encore.
She knew a private punishment wasn’t going to be enough.
She went back for more.
Witness Underground unveils an unexplored music community surviving within a dystopia. Humanizing the struggle, courage, and artistry of former members.
From home-brew music videos to grand pop-up festivals over 17 years and 30 albums. Art becomes more than self-expression; it is awakening, healing, and freedom from their trauma. "Frequently searing and undeniably confrontational.” [Tone Madison Music Magazine]
Long Synopsis:
A chilling, yet empowering social impact documentary, Witness Underground highlights the music and defection of doomsday cult members and the consequences of self-expression. A “unique look, with unwavering access, inside the complexities of faith, and the bond forged between artists.” [Amir George, Film and Art Programmer, True/False Film Festival.]
Nuclear Gopher, an underground indie record label, arose within their dystopia as a safe space for a few hundred born-in artists to express themselves. Witness the history of their most prolific underground bands as they navigated in the shadows of a high-control society.
From homebrew music videos to pop-up music festivals these groups created earnest, multi-genre, secular music, as a means of waking up, and processing trauma. "Frequently searing and undeniably confrontational" [Tone Madison] As outcasts they expose the losses of community and family. Their music is more than just an outlet for self-expression but rather as a powerful tool to heal.
Ryan Sutter and I created this documentary release pitch video for our Witness Underground documentary which is now available to stream on Tubi TV and Amazon.
Check out WitnessUnderground.com for all streaming options and official store.
Buy our Blu-Ray and Motion Picture Soundtrack 2 Vol CD.
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCnXbnuEB0iwtpY_Dl_Q9KdA/join
Watch Witness Underground Documentary for FREE on TUBI TV. Within the confines of an elusive cult, a vibrant alternative music community thrived, deprogramming themselves through art. Poignant live performances punctuate tragic losses to beautifully illuminate shunning by Jehovah's Witnesses.
FREE on TUBI TV
tubitv.com/movies/100018684/witness-underground
A compelling cult documentary of 2024, chronicling the journey of JWs through their transformative experience navigating the depths of underground music culture while being profoundly influenced by a cult. A gripping tale of Jehovah's Witnesses escaping the cult, surviving the realities of shunning, and find their voices.
The only documentary to humanize cult life & survival via self-expression, musicians triumph over trauma from coerced shunning.
"Jarring, heartbreaking, infuriating ...Movie score 8/10." [Film Threat]
"Advocacy with a megaphone" [Bad ASSociation Podcast - Chev Clark]
Witness resilience, escape, & healing through poignant original music.
"Shunning beautifully illuminated" [Chris Gray - Freestyle Distribution]
Rate and review on IMDb, TMDb, & Amazon
IMDb - 9.5/10! - Help keep it extraordinarily high!
imdb.com/title/tt15215562
TMDb - Leave a Review
themoviedb.org/movie/829437-witness-underground
Amazon - Boost the algorithm with a review.
amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0CVGPPFZ5
Genres:
Social Impact Documentary, Cult, Documentary | Arts and Culture,
Social Issues, Music and Performances, Informational & Educational, Music Documentary
Short Synopsis:
Witness Underground is a documentary that reveals the insular DIY artist community that emerged within a religious cult in Minneapolis. Music, fame, and success are typically forbidden in this group, which instructs its members to “beware of independent thinking.”
The artists at the heart of the music scene have their faith tested. They battle for mental health and push the boundaries of their religion’s norms, where leaving means being banned from interacting with your entire family and social circle for life.
Although severely restricted, they create the record label Nuclear Gopher and produced over 30 albums of earnest and personal music that spans: singer/songwriter, riot grrrl, psychedelic rock, pop, EDM, shoegaze, and post-rock. Carefully curated performances punctuate their stories of friendship, deep loss, and personal growth.
Long Pitch:
In suburban Minneapolis, upstanding Jehovah’s Witnesses are arriving home after hours of doorbell ringing and front doors slamming.
But not Cindy, or the elder staring down this teenager.
Or the man she lost her virginity to hours ago in a hotel.
“Did you start it? Did you touch him?”, the elder asks.
“Did you have an orgasm?”
She played a show that week. A coffee shop Witnesses flocked to.
She plucked strings to her pop-punk anthem.
She belted out the words her spirit had tried to hide.
Her "Prayer To No One" ricocheted off the walls to a riveted crowd.
They wanted an encore.
She knew a private punishment wasn’t going to be enough.
She went back for more.
Witness Underground unveils an unexplored music community surviving within a dystopia. Humanizing the struggle, courage, and artistry of former members.
From home-brew music videos to grand pop-up festivals over 17 years and 30 albums. Art becomes more than self-expression; it is awakening, healing, and freedom from their trauma. "Frequently searing and undeniably confrontational.” [Tone Madison Music Magazine]
Long Synopsis:
A chilling, yet empowering social impact documentary, Witness Underground highlights the music and defection of doomsday cult members and the consequences of self-expression. A “unique look, with unwavering access, inside the complexities of faith, and the bond forged between artists.” [Amir George, Film and Art Programmer, True/False Film Festival.]
Nuclear Gopher, an underground indie record label, arose within their dystopia as a safe space for a few hundred born-in artists to express themselves. Witness the history of their most prolific underground bands as they navigated in the shadows of a high-control society.
From homebrew music videos to pop-up music festivals these groups created earnest, multi-genre, secular music, as a means of waking up, and processing trauma. "Frequently searing and undeniably confrontational" [Tone Madison] As outcasts they expose the losses of community and family. Their music is more than just an outlet for self-expression but rather as a powerful tool to heal.
