Coming to PBS’s American Experience and to DVD today, Tuesday, February 4: THE AMISH: SHUNNED
Callie T Wiser’s exploration of the consequences Amish face when they leave their communities debuts on the popular PBS program, and simultaneously becomes available on DVD.
A follow-up to the series’ earlier documentary, THE AMISH, an exceptional portrait of the famously reclusive traditional religious community, Wiser’s affecting film zeroes in on one of the previous film’s points of intrigue – Amish people who have chosen to live in the “English” world – that is, outside of the fold and within modern American society. Interweaving the stories of seven brave men and women – representing both older and younger individuals, some who left decades ago, and others much more recently – Wiser reveals their complicated, emotionally painful separation from the only world they had ever known – a separation in most cases that comes with ostracism from family and community. This public shunning – not just excommunication from their all-important church, but often deeper, more fundamental erasure from virtually all familial interaction – is meant to protect the pious from the sinners, lest their undue influence lead others to stray from the flock, pointing to the Amish fear of their authority and traditions being undermined – a theme resonant from the first film as well. Subjects here share their experiences, and reasons, for leaving the Amish ways; the efforts of family members to convince them – sometimes successfully, for a time – to return; and the challenges – beyond the emotional blackmail of shunning – of adjusting to life in the modern world.
what (not) to doc 