Chapman & Maclain Way On The Making Of Wild Wild Country

Netflix’s recent docu-series brings back to life the fascinating story of Osho’s Rajneeshpuram commune in America. The Way brothers — the director duo behind the show — take us behind the scenes of the most talked-about show in the country right now.

- Alshaar Khan

Who wouldn’t want to establish their own city, governed by a self-defined set of principles, and self-sufficient to the extent of having private airports and dams? As you know by now, someone actually did, with Rajneeshpuram. Netflix’s recent six-part docu-series, Wild Wild Country, resurrects a lost slice of American history, telling the incredible story of Rajneesh aka Osho and his commune in America. Set in a tiny town of ranchers in Oregon, it captures the bizarre and near-implausible turn of events between 1981 and 1985, when Osho’s secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, called the shots and helped the leader establish a 64,000-acre commune at the Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco County.

Salmonella, weapons, betrayal and, of course, sex — the explosive contents of the documentary have made it a ubiquitous topic at dinner tables. Behind the series are siblings Chapman and Maclain Way. During the filming of their debut 2014 documentary, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, the duo was introduced to a cache of 300 hours of archived local news footage of the Rajneeshees — around 7,500 full-time residents and thousands of other itinerant devotees. MW spoke to the Way brothers about the show’s rousing reception, possible spinoffs, Sheela and their style of filmmaking.

How does the reception to your documentary make you feel?

It’s been really interesting, this past month. We’d been working on this project for over four years. Even in the United States, not many people remembered the story of Bhagwan Rajneesh (before the release of Wild Wild Country), so we were a little worried that it might not be something that very many people would be interested in. But to see the reaction, and see people engage in all the material and complexity, has been really exciting for us.

Do you have any previous ties with the Rajneesh movement?