Alex Gibney's documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" has continued to make headlines since it premiered Sunday, March 29, on HBO. The film provides a general history of how the controversial church has won praise from church defectors but stark criticism from church members.

The secretive church released a statement attacking the film as "insidious religious persecution by bullies toting cameras" and the ex-Scientologists that participated as "the usual collection of obsessive, disgruntled former Church members."

TIME reports that actress Leah Remini, an outspoken former Scientologist, praised HBO's investigative documentary on Monday when she tweeted, "Thank you to the brave who did something about it. And to those who didn't have a voice, you do now."

The 44-year-old former "King of Queens" star made headlines in July 2013 during her highly publicized exit from the Church of Scientology. She left the church after allegedly enduring years of "interrogations" and "thought modification" for questioning leader David Miscavige.

In an interview with BuzzFeed last year, the "Exes" star said she didn't want her 9-year-old daughter, Sofia, to grow up in the church.

"She was getting to the age where the acclimation into the Church would have to start," Remini said of the process, which starts with auditing.

The actress said that she resented her own mother for spending all her time at the church instead of with family.

"But my mom thought she was doing something good; she thought she was helping the planet. That's what the Church tells you."

A Church of Scientology representative issued a statement to People magazine shortly after the interview in which she referred to Remini as "self-absorbed" and a woman with "an insatiable craving for attention."

The "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" documentary shed light on the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who was a prolific science-fiction author. The film alleges that Hubbard realized the form of therapy he had created could be most profitable by becoming a religion, freeing itself from a tax burden. The Internal Revenue Service made Scientology a religion in 1993, but by then, Hubbard was dead. He had lived out the remaining years of his life in hiding due to tax evasion.

The documentary covers L. Ron Hubbard, Thetans, E-meters, lawsuits and features Scientology's most famous member, Tom Cruise.