"Director Mona Fastvold's new film, " The Testament of Ann Lee," features actor Amanda Seyfried in the titular role: the English spiritual seeker who brought the Shaker movement to America. The trailer literally writhes with snakes intercut amid scenes of emotional turmoil, religious ecstasy, orderly and disorderly dancing - and sex. Intense and sometimes menacing music underpins it all: the sounds of the enraptured, singing their way to a fantastic and unimaginable ceremony."
"I sit on the Board of Trustees of Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts, where some of the film was shot, though I have not seen the film, which is due to be released on Christmas Day. I was the curator at Hancock from 2001 to 2009 and have studied the Shakers for more than 25 years, publishing numerous books and articles on the sect."
The film centers on Ann Lee, the English spiritual seeker who brought the Shaker movement to America, using striking visuals including snakes, emotional turmoil, religious ecstasy, orderly and disorderly dancing, and sexual elements paired with intense, sometimes menacing music. Some filming took place at Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. The Shaker sect once had several thousand members; today three remain, practicing at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, since 1783. Early Shakers manifested the Holy Spirit by shaking in worship and called themselves "Believers," formally the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. Shaker worship developed distinctive music and dance; until the 1870s music was monophonic and some melodies were said to be spirit-given.
Read at The Conversation
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