Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth is a 1988 documentary series featuring six hour-long conversations between journalist Bill Moyers and mythologist Joseph Campbell. Campbell was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and he authored many books, including his most famous book in 1949 entitled The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Campbell died of cancer before this PBS series aired, so these interviews serve as a sort of last lecture summarizing the ideas of his life of teaching. Throughout the series, Campbell sprinkles in mythological stories to underline the points he is making. While the interviews do have some visual accompaniment, they can just as easily be listened to as watched. If you can watch them, wonderful imagery and video footage often illustrate what Campbell is referring to.
The conversations are wide-ranging, covering topics such as religious figures, Star Wars, Native American spirituality, the different types of love, rituals surrounding sacrifice, his ideas on God, and many mythological stories he tells from memory. Campbell acknowledges that he is a maverick regarding his ideas on religion and mythology, and in these interviews, he certainly proves that to be true.
This documentary series is generously offered for free on the YouTube channel of the excellent film distributor Kino Lorber. Their channel features many more free movies and documentaries if you'd like to check them out on the Kino Lorber YouTube Channel. Hopefully, they will keep up the Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth series on their channel for all of eternity!
You can check out our summaries of each episode in the series on our blog post here:
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth Summarized