Angela Shelton's Story
This film differs immensely from what we have seen in class thus far. From a stylistic point of view, it is dissimilar because of the documentary style. This style helps convey the message that the creators want to send. Everything in this film is real - there is no acting - the people and their stories are all as real as it gets. In the other films we have seen, the characters don't know what they're in store for, and they have no real structure to their journey. In Searching For Angela Shelton, the "main" Angela Shelton has her journey planned out, start to finish. Through this journey we see something very different than what someone will see on television or in movies today.
Early feminist recovery model was found in this movie when unity was incorporated among women in need. Very often women who have been abused either directly or indirectly need empowerment (more frequently in earlier recovery methods) through likeness with others, through an understanding that they are not alone and they don't need to be alone. This project encourages these women through an early style recovery model. The lead Angela Shelton also finds the same solace in her journey to understand the making of her ultimate confrontation.
The reality in this documentary is much unlike common cultural representations of women being victimized in a subplot of criminal investigation stories. A great criminal investigation stories result in the criminal being brought to justice, leaving small redemption for the women who were victimized to begin with. In Searching For Angela Shelton, the sad truth is exposed that frequently there is no closure brought to stories of rape or abuse.
Though this film helped to expose said truth, the narrating Angela Shelton seemed to expose it in an irresponsible manner. Her voyage supposedly began as finding the Angela Sheltons across the country, discovering what women in the United States are like, supposedly taking that random sample to represent the average women. Call me crazy, but I don't think the average woman is a mess of tears and trauma 24/7. The plot focused on negative experiences to draw parallel to the narrator's own journey, without including any everyday or average experiences in this search for a representation of the average woman. Of course trauma can be something dealt with every day, but the exposure to stories of women being abused and belittled is very rarely a constant focus in a typical day of a great majority of the victimized women. The movie did not seek usual things. It went out of its way (in a very obvious manner) to frame a message it wanted to send. Though the stories were likely not doctored, the focus definitely was to portray a certain bias. Men in the film were not treated fairly, nor were the women who were arguably exploited.
If I were to have made this film, I would have stuck to my original claim - and if that wasn't the intention, I would have stated the truth to begin with. This film did not help women, it helped the narrating Angela Shelton (in that sense, she was very greedy and irresponsible.. In fact, there were far too many examples of men abusing women and having no consequence. Although that may be a commonality, it promotes more male dominance. Though a documentary on the "typical" life of a "typical" woman may not be as intense or dramatic, it would have served a better purpose.
I believe a much better approach would have been to not focus on the stories to help the narrator, but to focus on the broad lives of each of these women, and as many aspects as you can. The ups and downs, the victories and the defeats. Not only the disheartening losses. Afterward, if the narrator would like to prove a point about victimization in the world of an "average woman," a story could be told and a comment could be made at the end if there were any victimization in their lives, rather than pointing it out to begin with and learning nothing more about the women.