American expat explores her roots in
nuanced view of Bible belt
JOHN GRIFFIN, The Gazette
Published: Friday, December 14 2007
Playing in English with French subtitles at:
Ex-Centris cinema.
Parents' guide: for all
The most reactionary thing about Unbuckling My
Bible Belt is its title.
This gracious, open-minded little documentary by Montreal veteran Patricia Tassinari and her American-born tour guide Laura Kathryn Mitchell is a family fact-finding road trip of the American South.
Mitchell left her Missouri roots 15 years ago and
relocated in the frozen north. With the death of her mother - a progressive
Democrat in a overwhelmingly religious conservative clan - Mitchell decides to
visit kinfolk and take stock of her familial connections. Tassinari and her
camera come along for the ride.
What she, and we, learn, is pretty much what those of
us who love Americans have insisted through trying times these last few years:
The only thing wrong with America is its institutions, from the federal
government on down the line to Wal-Mart and fundamentalist religion of all
stripes.
From Missouri through Alabama, Georgia and Texas,
Mitchell's people are overwhelmingly decent, thoughtful human beings who just
happen to take Jesus as their saviour.
In conversations about the war in Iraq, George Bush,
other religions, politics in general and the current administration in
particular, her various and sundry relatives buck the simplistic notion of
Southerners as ignorant hayseeds who praise the lord and pass the ammunition.
There are rednecks among them, but the condition comes
from riding tractors in the searing heat all day. Granted, the Mitchell people
as a rule fall into the middle and upper-middle class of the great land below
us, but many Americans do. It's not all trailer parks and gun-racked pickup
trucks below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Yes, they are conservative for the most part -
Mitchell's ex-fundamentalist, now-Buddhist drag queen cousin stands out from
the crowd - but it's the cautious conservatism of the courtly Old South.
Ultimately, Unbuckling My Bible Belt isn't really
about facing up to the religious realities of a changing America. It's about
Mitchell figuring out where she fits in after so long in Canada, a country more
different from the States than is commonly believed.
As such, this a revealing piece of work, modestly
undertaken, with modest but real rewards. Any film that reminds us of the many
varied virtues of our neighbours, and our relatively few disagreements, deserves
its place in the world.
jgriffin@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007