A MEETING OF FRIENDS

A  visual poem, the film begins and ends in a Friends (Quaker) silent meeting for worship to witness the marriage of Ed and Barbara. There are long stretches of silence as we observe the faces of the Friends in meditation.  The camera seems to inquire, can we see into souls?  Rising out of  the silence of the meeting the couple exchange their wedding vows.  

The scene shifts and Esther, a college civics teacher, Laura, a weaver, and Girard,  the music teacher at a girl’s reform school, reflect on what it means to them to be a part of a community committed to non-violence and social justice.   They participate in a candle light vigil to protest the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.  

I was nineteen when I made this film about a Quaker Meeting I was part of.  There was much discussion within the community about whether or not to allow a camera into the sacred space of worship.  Most challenging was the filming of Barbara and Ed’s wedding vows because of the limitations of the equipment available to me as a film student at Portland State University.   

The wedding was not staged.  It seems like a simple thing today but it wasn’t fifty years ago. I’m still amazed that the Friends were willing to put up with bright movie lights, the dinosaur studio camera, and a looming boom rig that suspended a microphone over the heads of the bride and groom.  I am grateful to the Friends, both tolerant and unruffled, who participated in my very first sound film.