Angela Shelton hits the road.
In the movies we have watched so far I think that the road functions in some ways as the answer to the problem or the vessel the characters use to find a solution to their problem. Because this film was a documentary, the road served a different function for Angela. In the beginning of the film she tells us that she will go on the road for 60 days talking to all the Angelas and then at the end of the journey she will confront her step-brother and father. The road has almost become what is taking her to the final step of her mission to find Angela Shelton (once she decided to start the journey, of course). Unlike many of the others, Angela knows her final destination. Also functionally, of course, the road takes Angela to all her interviewees to allow them to tell their stories, which of course is the point in “breaking the silence�.
I wouldn’t say that Angela uses her camera irresponsibly. She at least is using it in a way that allows women to simply tell their stories without judgment or gaze being placed upon their words or bodies. Though I think sometimes it is frivolous to look for a female gaze because it hasn’t really been established like the “male gaze� has, she is definitely moving towards it. If I was Angela I would have included more human details from these women’s stories. She sort of cut up their experiences to include only the traumatic events in their past, which I feel erases a lot of the important things that need to be said about these women if we are going to encourage other women to “break the silence� as Angela hopes to do with her film.