Religious right roots

>> A Montreal filmmaker ventures south in the documentary Unbuckling My Bible Belt

by MATTHEW HAYS

Those who populate the southern United States have long proven fodder for lazy screenwriters. Nothing conjures up stupidity and inbreeding better than giving a character a southern accent, from the shenanigans of The Beverly Hillbillies to Hillary Swank’s lecherous, money-grubbing family in Million Dollar Baby.

Thus it comes as a relief to watch Montreal filmmaker Patricia Tassinari’s exploration of one extended family in the American South, Unbuckling My Bible Belt. In it, Laura Kathryn Mitchell—an American émigré who settled in Montreal over 15 years ago—ventures to several American states to meet up with members of her extended family. The doc begins with powerfully poignant moments, as we see glimpses of Mitchell as a young girl in Super 8 footage. Mitchell then introduces us to a number of members of her family and, naturally, there are many differences with their political and religious beliefs. It’s all about guns, God and gays, and Mitchell encounters all three. Some speak of hearing God’s voice in their heads, speaking to them; one preacher describes the coming Rapture; another shows off her Jesus fridge magnet.

To Tassinari’s credit, she doesn’t stoop to caricature or crude derision of those in this doc. Instead, there is nuance and dimension; one elder woman speaks of having to defend her support of the Clintons. Another young man speaks of the “stupidity” of the war in Iraq. And Mitchell even has a gay relative, who describes survival strategies.

Still, there’s no escaping the Idiot Factor, and when people speak proudly of putting a Christian (that would be Bush) in the White House (when was there a non-Christian President in the White House?) it just gets flat-out irritating. For Quebec audiences, hearing self-declared, God-fearing Christians speak of the justification for the invasion of Iraq will simply be infuriating. “Jesus doesn’t expect anybody to be a doormat,” one woman surmises.

Tassinari and Mitchell don’t expect to convert anyone. Rather, Unbuckling emerges as a series of telling portraits of a group of people we’re not expected to fully comprehend.

Unbuckling My Bible Belt opens this
Friday, Dec. 14 at Ex-Centris

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