Speaker Pelosi's
Daughter Documents
Christian Right
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web, January 21, 2007
PASADENA, California --
Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker and daughter of U.S. House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had a big problem on her hands when making
her new movie, "Friends of God," and it came from the Christian right.
When Pelosi, whose movie was backed by U.S. cable television network HBO, set
out to explore the Christian evangelical movement widely credited with helping
elect President George W. Bush, she had a difficult time getting anybody to open
up to her.
"Forget my name. Forget HBO. It was hard to get people to talk to me
just because I was from New York," Pelosi told Reuters in a recent interview in
Pasadena, California, where she was presenting the documentary to television
critics.
But eventually Pastor Ted Haggard opened his door to Pelosi and welcomed her.
It was a perfect entry point because at that time Haggard headed the 30-million
member National Association of Evangelicals from his church in Colorado.
Then, in November, only days after the documentary filmmaker handed her work
over to HBO to prepare for TV, Haggard made headlines when claims of his drug
use and having sex with a male prostitute led to his disgrace and his downfall.
Haggard's dilemma presented Pelosi with her second big problem. Because
she uses Haggard extensively and because she felt obliged to her audience to
acknowledge the charges against Haggard, "Friends of God" could be viewed as an
attack on the Christian right. It is the last thing Pelosi wanted.
"I think the evangelicals will pre-judge the project. I hope they won't,
but I assume they will," she said.
She added that if that is the case, it "is unfortunate because I think a lot of
them look great."
16 STATES, 800 INTERVIEWS
Pelosi, a former TV news producer who documented Bush's 2000 presidential
campaign in her award-winning "Journeys with George," said she traveled through
16 states and conducted some 800 interviews to profile evangelicals who believe
the Holy Bible is the word of God and should be strictly followed.
"If you live in Los Angeles or New York, you don't realize there's this whole
group out there rejecting your culture," she said. "All I was trying to do
was introduce blue staters to all the people who live in between New York and
L.A.," she said.
In "Friends of God," audiences are taken on a road trip across the southern,
midwestern and western United States, meeting parishioners in churches, kids at
Christian concerts, a comedian for Jesus, a man who builds Holy crosses, and
even audiences at a Christian professional wrestling match.
What emerges is an outsider's look at people who deeply believe abortion is
wrong, gay marriage is bad and teaching evolution in public schools goes against
the word of God.
Pelosi is a writer, director, camera operator and producer, which was her style
on "Journeys with George" and her 2004 "Diary of a Political Tourist," which
looked at that year's Democratic presidential candidates.
In 2004, of course, Bush was re-elected, again with overwhelming support of the
evangelical movement.
"You can say what you want about the evangelicals, but in the end you have to
respect these people because they are so (politically) organized and so
mobilized," she said. "I did come away with a profound respect for that."
"Friends of God" debuts on HBO on January 25.
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