EAC Films: “The Religion Move”

EAC Films presents “The Religion Move”, a documentary by Alan Kryszak that was filmed at several locations Down East, including St. Ann’s Church in Sipayik. The film will be shown free of charge at 3 pm on Saturday, February 3. The film features people telling their life stories of the “following” or the “leaving” of their belief systems. Individuals and religious leaders from Maine to Boston discuss positive and negative experiences with the faiths the world follows, including a rare look at the Sipayik tribal perspective on the Catholic Church’s role in their lives with the demolition of St. Ann’s in Pleasant Point, Maine. The film also revolves back to LGBTQ experiences with religion and recent racially motivated movements in Florida and the nation.

Still more lenses through which to examine religion are offered, including the unfiltered eyes of Christian, LGBTQ, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Atheist perspectives.

Following the screening will be a talkback panel with Passamaquoddy guests and participants in the film, Dwayne Tomah and Kendra Dana Sockabasin, who will discuss the Wabanaki experience, the impact of a “Catholic residential school” on several generations, and the final demolition of St. Ann’s Church as a landmark of suppression.

Kryszak, as part of the University of Maine at Machias’ Creative Arts Faculty, guided the Downeast Documentary film crew through this project, including Lucas Boyett, Halle Brown, Lydia DeSchiffart, Henry Dunn, Graham Lee, Jana McDonald, Joscelyn Rebello, and Jo Dee White.

EAC Films screenings have been supported by a Maine Community Foundation Community Building Grant.