If you haven't seen Searching for Angela Shelton, you've missed out on a truly powerful work of art that interrogates the linkages between diverse women--both triumphant and depressing. Faced with a writer's strike and a bit of a psychic crisis, Californian Angela Shelton hits the road in her RV and visits all the other Angela Sheltons in the U.S. that will speak with her. Very quickly she realized that one of the things that too many of them have in common is a history of abuse and interpersonal violence. The film really comes to a head when Angela, the original, finds her own father who molested her and her siblings when they were all young, and confronts him. I have to say that I've seen few moments caught on film that are that powerful--not in a cathartic way, mind you.
Now Angela has graced us with a book to go alone with the documentary, this one called Finding Angela Shelton. It is a glorified diary of her film journey, complete with far more comprehensive accounts of the lives of the Angela Sheltons along the way and her healing process with her family and her own soul. She ends with this reflection:
My survey of women in America showed me that we are all pretty amazing and we've been through hell, but most of us are breaking the cycle and leading awesome lives."
Amen Angela.
Next time: CHEER! by Kate Torgonick and then I'm on the road so I may take a week off. Can you stand it?
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Good story, but this was already done by a woman named Grace Lee--"The Grace Lee Project." Just FYI.
This makes me wonder what would happen if we took a simple project like this - a woman looking up those who share her name - and made it bigger. What if we all did? Would everyone find similarities and bridge gaps of socio-economic misunderstanding?
I think if it's been done by two women so far, all the better.
I remember hearing about Searching for Angela Shelton on an episode of Oprah, so maybe this is going to be Oprah's book club. Hmm.
Also, this was years and years ago. I remember hearing about it before seeing anything about The Grace Lee Project (which was wonderful).
It would be interesting to find other women with my unique Polish name (I think there may be 2 or 3 others in the whole world, so not enough for a book). However, one of the other women with my same name (and same middle initial!) went to the same college as I did. Spooky! (Not really, considering it was in Chicago with its high Polish population.)
I did some research amazonratz.
Searching for Angela Shelton came out in 2004.
The Grace Lee Project came out in 2005.
They were both probably working on their films at the same time without knowing they were overlapping.
Angela Shelton is amazing! I am so glad you've featured her because this is so much more than a documentary... her movie, blog, and speaking have helped alot of women begin the process of healing.
I can't wait to read her book!
wow, watching that gave me chills. i am absolutely going to have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up, Courtney :)
These are both obviously very interesting and worthwhile projects, done close to the same time. Both women should be proud, and I meant only to draw attention to Grace Lee, not in any way to diminish Angela Shelton.
My name is Nickola Johnson. I've met a number of women named Nicola and Nichola, but only one, I tracked her down online, that shared the spelling of my first name as well as my last name. She was a Johnson by marriage, but that didn't matter to me. She did some neat stuff with uncovering American heritage/the movement of people through the west.
That was quite an experience. I think I'll pick this up.