Final Critique: The Separation on State Street, Pg. 3
There were a few audio issues, however. For the most part, the interview audio was easy to understand, though there were a few times when the levels dipped, such as when the interviewer asked questions off-camera. In addition, in the location that used for the interview with Anonka’s lawyer, there was a lot of background noise, which got a little distracting at times. While one of the difficulties in filming documentaries is getting interviewees to sit in front of the camera, in this case it probably would have been better to do the lawyer’s interview in a private residence or perhaps in her office – some place where there would not have been quite as much background noise.
In addition, toward the end of the movie, there was an interview segment where the audio was slightly out of sync with the video. This definitely needs to addressing, addressed, though it should not be too hard to fix in an editing program.
Use of Budget
This film was shot over a period of three years, which had to present a certain amount of challenges, but also advantages. On the downside, legal issues always take time, and having to both wait it out while simultaneously remaining available, in case anything happened, had to be difficult. On the plus side, there was no hectic shooting schedule that had to be completed in three months, and the budget could be stretched out over a much longer period, rather than spent all up front.
There are still a few issues that probably need to be worked on; the most important of which is getting a better structure to the film, as well as taking out some of the unimportant elements and filling in some of the blanks. However, this is still an interesting story, and it is quite impressive that Mr. St. Mary was game for braving such controversial waters.
Court cases, public protests and
letters in the newspaper...
...Were only the beginning of a situation
that very quickly turned hostile.
Lasting Appeal
A documentary does not have to be boring and there certainly is enough controversy in Separation on State Street to keep most viewers interested, if not entertained. It is an interesting story that deserves to be told. To be perfectly honest, I would have almost rather been properly educated about witchcraft. Or to have learned a bit more about Anonka and her family, rather than hear a lot of the same separation of church and state arguments re-hashed and re-argued.
Anonka seems like a wonderful woman and her family is both delightfully unorthodox and very close-knit. I do not doubt they had good intentions for setting up their museum, though it does baffle me that they chose such a small and obviously very religious town to do so. I very much doubt that all this controversy would have occurred, had they chosen to set up shop in a town such as Salem, Massachusetts.
Overall Comment
Ever since the founding fathers penned the first amendment, Americans have been fighting about it. While the battle may be a bit overplayed, each story has its own peculiarities. Love them or hate them, Anonka and her family are nothing if not charismatic, unique, and colorful (ok, she wears a lot of black, but you know what I mean). One of the most important things to be learned from a documentary like this is the fact that one will not see eye-to-eye with everyone they might encounter, but as long as both parties can agree to disagree, respectfully, that is all that really matters.
The
author of half a dozen screen plays, two novels, and a proficient
camera-woman in her own right, Monika
DeLeeuw-Taylor is Microfilmmaker's lead writing analyst and
one of our top film reviewers. When she's not writing a critique for
Microfilmmaker, she's writing screenplays for Viking Productions.
