''Altars of the World'' is a 1976 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

. The film was created as a shorter version of the 1955 American documentary ''Altars of the East''. ''Altars of the World'' was the last recipient of the

Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film was a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award that was introduced for the 11th Golden Globe Awards, followed by the 30th Golden Globe Awards before discontinuation after the 34th Golden Globe Award ...

before the award was retired in 1977.

Synopsis

''Altars of the World'' is about the various religions of the world including

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

and

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

. Throughout the documentary, the film features the religious practices and locations of global religions while providing interviews.

Production

Actor

Lew Ayres Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film ''All Quiet on the Western Fro ...

claimed he was inspired to create a film about

world religions World religions is a socially-constructed category used in the study of religion to demarcate religions that are deemed to have been especially large, internationally widespread, or influential in the development of human societies. It typicall ...

in the mid-1950s after having a

religious experience A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, mystical experience) is a subjectivity, subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, a ...

with

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. Originally titled ''Altars of the East'', the documentary had a budget of $85,000 and took two years to be completed. Ayers and film technician Bob Duncan spent the first year filming the documentary while Ayers took another year to edit the film. An additional two years of filming was conducted in the mid-1970s after Ayers chose to create a shorter version of ''Altars of the East'' in 1973.

Release

''Altars of the East'' was released in 1955 as a nine hour long trilogy of films. Ayres released a version of ''Altars of the East'' reduced to a two and a half hour film under the name ''Altars of the World'' in 1976. After the documentary's theatrical debut on January 30, 1976, ''Altars of the World'' was later split into two VHS tapes titled ''Altars of the World: The Western Religions'' and ''Altars of the World: The Eastern Religions''. Both of these tapes were released on May 25, 1999. DVD copies of the documentary were made available on December 9, 2003.

Critical response

On the VHS tapes, Rob Ferrier of

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

said ''The Western Religions'' would be interesting for people who wanted to learn about the global influence of religion. On the other hand, Ferrier's colleague Clarke Fountain felt ''The Eastern Religions'' would be useful for viewers studying religious similarities but not for others learning about Christian based faiths.

Accolades

''Altars of the World'' was awarded the 1977

. It was the last documentary to be presented this Golden Globe award when the category was discontinued in 1977.

References

{{Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film 1976 films American documentary films Golden Globe Award winners Documentary films about religion 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language documentary films