Angela Shelton
Searching for Angela Shelton is a documentary about Angela Shelton who goes on a voyage across the United States to find all the other Angela Sheltons. Angela had been sexually abused as a young child and finds that many of the other Angela Sheltons have been abused in some way throughout their lives as well. I think that in this film the road functions as a means for Angela to find some answer to her troubled past. In the beginning of the film it seems as if she is just interested in the other lives of the Angelas, but as she travels across the United States it seems as if she is looking for some answer as to why she was abused. As she meets with these other women across the United States she finds that most of them have been abused in some way. She uses the camera to as the means to tell their stories. We do get insight from these ladies but the way the film is made, all the stories somehow come back to her own life. Instead of focusing on the Angela Sheltons and what has happened to them, she makes it so she can use their stories to tell about herself and her past. In a few cases, i think she handles the situations really irresponsibly. There is the first lady that she speaks to and this lady clearly has not had any issues with abuse but it seems that Angela is almost prying to try to find some information. Then there is the lady that is opening up room for foster care services and Angela brings up the totally irrelevant fact that she was in a foster home and it was horrible. In this instance the lady is clearly doing something good but Angela turns it into something bad by bringing up her own troubles. We see this throughout the entire film as she journeys to meet her dad. She finally makes it to South Carolina to confront her dad about what he did. I feel that it is almost stupid to think that after 20 some years that if she confronts him he will own up to the fact that he sexually abused her as a child. Seriously if some guy had gotten away with this for all this time, showing up with a camera and asking him why he did it is probably not the best idea in the world. I think that the film was a good idea and was interesting to hear these women's stories but I think it should have focused more on their lives and trials. I think it was good how she shared her personal story but that she was almost selfish in the way that she did it. Also I don't feel that she accomplished anything by going to her dad. I guess maybe it helped her in some way to confront him but it didn't seem like it in the film.