The film Knocking about the Christian group known as Jehovah's witnesses
Added: (Tue Aug 16 2005)
A New film on PBS is in the making about Jehovah's witnesses , heres what we know. This is a letter sent to me The aim of KNOCKING is to give a general, non-Jehovah's Witness audience a fair look at a religious group that has long been misunderstood and relegated to cartoonish stereotypes. KNOCKING uses the real life stories of real families to humanize Jehovah's Witnesses. But we don’t shy from criticism. Our aim is that everything is fair and accurate. We show both the ups and downs, including what it is like for Witnesses who have unbelieving or opposing family members, and how divided families can find common ground. For instance, the young man who undergoes a groundbreaking bloodless liver transplant has opposing family members who come to the hospital to see first-hand how the new bloodless technology works. KNOCKING will be educational and illuminating for a non-Jehovah's Witness audience. Extended family, neighbors, co-workers and classmates of Jehovah’s Witnesses will certainly be interested to take a look. Closer to time of broadcast, we will offer DVDs for home and school use. The DVD will be a feature-length version of the film (the broadcast on PBS will be shorter) and will include extras like expanded interviews. We’ll be sure to send more details on that later. As of Summer 2005, the film is being edited in San Francisco. Throughout the course of the project, we filmed in California, Georgia, Ohio, New York, Nevada, and Texas as well as Austria and Poland. We filmed in Kingdom Halls, conventions and in the door-to-door ministry. Keep in mind that every Jehovah's Witness who has contributed to this film, either on camera or behind the scenes, has done so by their own personal choice. There is no official connection to the Watchtower Society, though the Bethel organization in Brooklyn, Patterson and Wallkill, New York has been cooperative with the producers of this film. We interviewed Watchtower representatives on camera and filmed inside Bethel. Watchtower has no financial ties to this project, nor any editorial control. It is important to know that this project is independently produced for public television, using a combination of public, foundation and individual funds. No one on the production staff is a Jehovah's Witness. The director's mother, however, is a Witness. And we do have Jehovah's Witnesses who are serving as consultants for factual accuracy. We also have academic, historical and medical consultants who are experts in their field but not Jehovah's Witnesses. We intend to premiere KNOCKING at a prestigious film festival such as Sundance in early 2006. A national television broadcast on PBS will follow. And the film will be made available on DVD. We also hope to bring KNOCKING to cities throughout the United States in 2006 for special screenings. This will be a chance for you to see a sneak preview and perhaps meet some of the film's subjects in a live Q&A session. The KNOCKING web site and these newsletters will provide updated information about where and when the sneak previews will take place. If you are interested in volunteering to organize such a screening in your city, contact us directly at [email protected]. Please type “Volunteer” in the subject heading. We look forward to seeing the positive impact this film has in telling the untold stories of Jehovah's Witnesses.We hope you do, too. Thanks again for contacting us, and the KNOCKING staff will be sure to keep you up to date on the latest progress. Sincerely, Joel P. Engardio Producer/Director Heres the link http://www.knocking.org/