Raw Faith

Documentaries about contemporary religious figures often tend to focus on scandal—think of Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, and Jimmy Swaggart—so it's refreshing to watch filmmaker Peter Wiedensmith's portrait of Marilyn Sewell, the chief minister at a Unitarian community in Portland, OR, where membership tripled during her tenure. Wiedensmith shows Sewell preparing and delivering homilies in a down-to-earth style before appreciative congregants, but the emphasis here remains on the personal side, serving up clips from Sewell's video diary—in which she acknowledges her own feelings of stress and inadequacy as she considers leaving her position to study and write—along with brief segments from her therapy sessions. In scenes illustrated with family stills and home movie footage, Sewell also tries to come to terms with her unhappy childhood involving a mentally disturbed mother and alcoholic father, while another sequence finds her visiting the Southern town where she was raised by her paternal grandparents. An additional narrative thread revolves around her feelings of loneliness after a marriage ended in divorce (although she maintains a good relationship with the two sons she reared, her demanding job leaves her little time to spend with them). Happily, she finds companionship—and a late-blooming romance—with a parishioner. Sewell may not be a major national religious leader, but this modest and unpretentious documentary nicely celebrates the dedication and honesty she has in common with many other clerics who serve quietly and selflessly. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)