How Mona Fastvold and Daniel Blumberg Adapted Shaker Hymns for 'Ann Lee': 'The Film's Pretty Extreme. How Can We Push It Further?'

"All are seen in this uniquely atmospheric, 35mm-shot musical epic - one of the few big-screen epics about female historical figures, as Fastvold pointed out during the Venice presser - singing original Shaker melodies and words and dancing to Shaker-inspired, movement-forward choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall."

"The soundtrack includes both three Blumberg-penned original songs as well as a dozen Shaker hymns they adapted from primary sources, with the cast singing, both in camera and in ADR, the anarchic, guttural music that became the Shakers' spiritual incantation. It turns out there are only three Shaker believers still known to be in existence today, though as Fastvold explained to IndieWire ahead of the film's TIFF premiere, the filmmakers intentionally did not consult them."

An immersive, 35mm-shot musical epic reimagines Ann Lee, the 18th-century Shaker founder, as a female Christ figure leading followers from England to colonial America. Production mounted in Hungary on a $10 million budget involved director Mona Fastvold and co-writer/producer Brady Corbet. Amanda Seyfried portrays Ann Lee; supporting cast includes Lewis Pullman, Thomasin McKenzie, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Abbott as Lee’s husband, who ultimately defects over celibacy. The film features three Blumberg-penned originals alongside a dozen adapted Shaker hymns, in-camera and ADR singing, and movement-forward choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall. The production took creative liberties and did not consult the few remaining Shaker adherents.

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