THE GAZETTE

THE GAZETTE

Documentary makers keep an open mind in the Bible belt

BILL BROWNSTEIN, The Gazette

Published: Friday, October 19 2007

Patricia Tassinari and Laura Mitchell have been to Arab, Ala.; Lilbourn, Mo.; Glen Alan, Miss.; Uvala, Tex.; Memphis, Tenn.; and the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Pop in the Johnny Cash travellin' tune I've Been Everywhere on the car CD player and their road odyssey might initially pass for that Motel 6 TV spot.

But Montreal director Tassinari and transplanted Montreal actress Mitchell weren't conducting a test of motel mattress springs in this road odyssey.

Following the death of her mother, Mitchell, born and bred in the U.S. South, wanted to touch base with relatives scattered throughout the Mississippi Delta. She conscripted her colleague Tassinari to tag along with a movie camera and they proceeded to drive more than 5,000 kilometres in 40 days through seven states,

What they uncovered is not only a fascinating eyeful of contrasting images of the South, but also a compelling earful of contrasting views on religion, politics, war and culture. The documentary is called, fittingly, Unbuckling My Bible Belt and will screen Sunday at Ex-Centris, on the last day of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.

It may be hard to fathom how folks so close to us geographically could be so far away from us on so many levels. But the war in Iraq can do that to a country and bring out polarities. Toss some old-time religion into the mix, and you've got a heck of a stew.

They may be kin to Mitchell, but their ideologies reflect the gamut. The filmmakers encounter liberal cowboy philosophers, ultra-conservative Christian militants, a retired U.S. army general-turned-preacher awaiting the Rapture, and a fundamentalist-turned-Buddhist drag queen. And you thought you had a quirky family.

To the credit of Tassinari and Mitchell, they neither patronize nor pander. They listen and they show compassion.

Many of Mitchell's family members are in dire financial straits and realize their once simple lives have changed. Some blame Bush. Some champion him. Mostly, though, they look for guidance from above, and come away with wholly different messages from the Scriptures.

This is not Michael Moore running roughshod over those who don't concur with his world view. This is the work of filmmakers who have their own views but who allow others to elaborate on theirs.

"The South still feels like home, but I just can't live there anymore," notes Mitchell in the doc. Yet she concedes that, whatever her differences with her family, there is a love that will always bond them. To that end, the brood, with all its diversity, can manage to hold a reunion in the Ozarks and speak their minds - without anyone getting shot. Maybe there is a message here.

The project came to fruition after Tassinari and Mitchell watched the 2004 U.S. election results. "I made martinis and an apple pie for the occasion," says Tassinari, director of the drama Goodbye Federico and the doc Broken Promises - both award-winners. "Then with the results coming in, I was rather shocked and felt I had to know more about the Bible-belters in the red states. I also ended up throwing that apple pie away."

But while she may have been taken aback by their voting patterns, Tassinari claims to have been smitten by the Southerners she met. "I fell in love with the people. I even fell in love with the fundamentalist who felt Bush had become too liberal," she cracks. "There was a warmth and friendliness I hadn't anticipated. It made me realize there is a need to hear stories about people's beliefs without experts trying to interpret these beliefs for us. It also made me realize we are never going to get anywhere if we can't learn to talk to people whose beliefs are different."

Unbuckling My Bible Belt screens Sunday at 5:20 p.m. at Ex-Centris.

bbrownst@thegazette.canwest.com