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A New Documentary Film |
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The stranger was Michael Newdow who in the fall of 2002 came to Westport to speak about his successful challenge in federal court to the constitutionality of the phrase "under God" in the saying of Pledge of Allegiance by his daughter's elementary school class in California.
That decision was set aside Monday on Flag Day by the United States Supreme Court, which found that Newdow did not have the legal standing necessary to bring the case to court because he was not his daughter's custodial parent.
Seidenberg attended Newdow's talk out of general curiosity, with no intention of making a movie, but came away launching a film-journey to understand Newdow's action and to explore the intertwining of religion and patriotism in America.
"I wanted to know what makes someone wake up one morning and sue the Congress and the president before breakfast. I also wanted to know why it bothered people so much," she says in the film's narration, her first appearance in one of her own documentaries.
Whether it was just good luck or a residual of good planning, the value of the timing of the Supreme Court's decision is not lost on Seidenberg in terms of the promotion of the film, which she hopes to sell for commercial distribution.
She will be coming to the movie-market at a time when documentaries are doing well, as evidenced in the critical acclaim for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, which won "best picture" designation - unusual for a documentary - at this year's Cannes Film festival and is scheduled for release nationwide June 25.
It was Newdow's one-person stand, a kind of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" story, that interested Seidenberg. "He did it with only a computer, a printer and Google. He set a great example that anyone can go to the Supreme Court."
Of course Newdow, as Seidenberg was quick to acknowledge, is not just anybody, and that was part of his appeal for a movie-maker.
He has a law degree, but is a physician by profession. He sued on behalf of his daughter's rights, but was opposed by the girl's mother, with whom he was estranged and not married. He holds a certificate of ordination for life as a minister of the Universal Life Church, which entitles him to perform weddings, subject to the limitations of state law
To top it off, Newdow wrote folk ballads and strummed a guitar, as he did at the end of his talk in Westport with a rendition of his Pledge of Allegiance Blues.
Seidenberg at once saw she could have an interesting issue, an unusual subject, "like a modern-day Woody Guthrie," she said, and a jazzy title for a documentary, all in one package.
"A documentary must be entertaining. It can't be a bitter pill that's good for you. I wouldn't watch that kind of movie either," she said.
"When I first saw the Bill of Rights, I sure had some sleepless nights," Newdow sings early on in the film, after a scene from an interview with Connie Chung on CNN, in which she said: "Probably a lot of people out there, our viewers in particular, think what you are doing is blatantly anti-American."
With more than a touch of sass, Newdow shot back: "Those people don't understand the Constitution, which says that Congress shall make no law establishing religion. I would only ask those people how they would feel if they had to say the Pledge under Sun Myung Moon, David Koresh or Jesus Christ."
"He touched a sensitive nerve," according to Seidenberg, and she captured this on film, moving around the country, including a stop in Montgomery Ala. for the public eruption over the removal of stone replicas of the Ten Commandments from a state court house, a furor that included derogatory references to Newdow.
"There's a larger emotional issue at work. Removing the phrase would threaten some people's values, even though it wasn't in the Pledge until 1954," Seidenberg said. "The Pledge has become an icon for those who see America under siege, alone in the world."
Although Seidenberg has directed and produced seven documentaries and was the director of photography for six others, Pledge of Allegiance Blues is her first feature-length film.
She called this new film a "great adventure, exploring America. This was really the first time I had looked at my own country."
Most of her experience has involved filming in China, the Middle East and Russia. Her film, Mongolia on the Edge of Time was shot in one of the remotest places on earth.
The Connecticut Commission on the Arts awarded Seidenberg a fellowship in 2002, and she earned a "Best of Fest" prize from the Rochester International Film and Video competition in 1998, as well as a Bronze Apple Award in the National Educational Film and Video Festival in 1991.
Seidenberg has more than 20 broadcast and cable television credits, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. She is a founder and former director of Norwalk's SoNo Film and Video Festival and was film curator at the Westport Public Library from 1999-2001.
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