Not Oprah’s Book Club: Angela Shelton Duo

If you haven’t seen Searching for Angela Shelton, you’ve missed out on a truly powerful work of art that interrogates the linkages between diverse women–both triumphant and depressing. Faced with a writer’s strike and a bit of a psychic crisis, Californian Angela Shelton hits the road in her RV and visits all the other Angela Sheltons in the U.S. that will speak with her. Very quickly she realized that one of the things that too many of them have in common is a history of abuse and interpersonal violence. The film really comes to a head when Angela, the original, finds her own father who molested her and her siblings when they were all young, and confronts him. I have to say that I’ve seen few moments caught on film that are that powerful–not in a cathartic way, mind you.
Now Angela has graced us with a book to go alone with the documentary, this one called Finding Angela Shelton. It is a glorified diary of her film journey, complete with far more comprehensive accounts of the lives of the Angela Sheltons along the way and her healing process with her family and her own soul. She ends with this reflection:
My survey of women in America showed me that we are all pretty amazing and we’ve been through hell, but most of us are breaking the cycle and leading awesome lives.”
Amen Angela.
Next time: CHEER! by Kate Torgonick and then I’m on the road so I may take a week off. Can you stand it?