CNN Presents : `` Escape from Jonestown '' premiered on Nov. 13 , 2008 at 9 p.m . ET . In 1978 , 909 Americans were led to mass murder-suicide by Rev . Jim Jones . One-third of the dead at Jonestown were children ; only 33 people survived . Jim Jones in a mass murder-suicide pact in a South American jungle . The film was directed and produced by Robert Redford with a screenplay written by Peter Morgan based upon his book " A Death in Guyana " ( which is about an American missionary who went missing while serving as a
CNN Presents : `` Escape from Jonestown '' premiered on Nov. 13 , 2008 at 9 p.m . ET . In 1978 , 909 Americans were led to mass murder-suicide by Rev . Jim Jones . One-third of the dead at Jonestown were children ; only 33 people survived . The film was directed and produced by Robert Redford with a screenplay written by Peter Morgan based upon his book " A Death in Guyana " ( which is about an American missionary who went missing while serving as a