several years ago salawah for long from Sunderland Massachusetts left the Amish
and wrote a book about it shows even featured in American experience
documentary
last year called the Amish well a follow-up documentary
follows the lives of those that have left the Amish community and have been
shunned by their church
family analyte they once knew that'll air Tuesday February 4th on American
experience
well she is here with us today and she's joined by a writer for the Republic and
Corey
urban has written extensively about this and thank you ladies both for joining me
so much today so I'm a poster with you talk about this film
about making the film and everything that went into it well
the the first film that I was at the Amish that I was filmed for
was the beginning at and actually some %uh
that interview is included in the second film so basically
and the connection was Kelly wiser
who was the producer for the first film asked if I would
big consider being in the second one as well and then
she asked me in an email do you know any young people
who have left the Amish and on
unsure about whether they want to go back to stay out and I said no I don't
know anybody like that
I forgot about her request and a couple with a over
months later I get this phone call
from somebody who wanted to help out a friend of a friend who had taken in this
young woman
in hartford connecticut from a short center around this community
and the short stature is a test at that those consumers conservative
groups have all the Amish and and I'm
he said to me a would you help
us understand the culture once I got to know and I felt like
I need help understanding the culture because it was so different from the 1i
the community I came from and
so I made plans to meet with her
and then I said oh wait a minute Kelly might wanna know about this
and so I told her about it and she was right there
she wanted to go with us too hard for to me Anna
and that's when Anna decided not to be
not to have be filmed with her face showing she didn't want her identity in
there
and then I went back to my emails from before and I went wait a minute
Kelly gets what Kelly what but
see basically had asked for this and there it was
and said that %uh and I came into the story
so this new documentary or this follow-up documentary should say is
following the lives of seven different
amish on p members you acknowledge you have left the Amish community are
dealing with the aftereffects
%uh that you're in your interest in this documentary
Caroline cheese because you're the first one the year you take a place in this
documentary
n/a though is introduced and as the young girl you're talking about that
left her community
comes to live with you and your husband and yes Sunderland yes and this is where
Corey now comes into place had a quarry play a role in all this
well what happened was that and not
at first did not want to be known she did not want her story
told she didn't want to be in the paper and then
why don't you Corey told the story up how you discovered an A
I had met Salaam a earlier
for when her first book came out i den story for the republican on that book
and I also do some reading features for the sunday Republican
and had gone to the Sunderland library to do some %uh those features
and when I came down the street I saw a sign that said
Amish bakery so I stopped in a young woman came out and sold me a
loaf of bread and I thought could probably be a story for the republican
so I contacted solo homer and asked her if she knew
anything about this Amish bakery in Sunderland and she said
you were at my house so she talked to Anna
and Anna agreed to that she would be featured in the republican
and this is a pretty big deal because like you're mentioning amish
people don't allow themselves to be photographed or on camera
and and I had she just left the Amish community and so this was a pretty big
well and had left in July and this was a a sorta
October I think so when you when you have all
interviewed her but also tell the story of the basket
remember the basket starry over she was also selling baskets
from the porch along with the baked goods and the baskets caught my eye
because I happen to have
a couple a very similar baskets that I had purchased when I took my daughter on
a college visit
to upstate New York side prod it to Anna
another day and she recognized who had made
the baskets that I have the person in the community we had made that basket
Wow and the and get that goes back to show how
tight this community is and it's very
yet your culture your family you have the religion everything is so tightly
on Inc yes drove in just like a basket would be
and this film really shows that
turmoil especially the younger kids case
when you leave you leave everything you know
and I too was struck by a the stories
I it is not something
that you can even explain to someone
who hasn't gone through it it is so
amazing an experience for me
when I stepped onto the night train the first time I left
with my head uncovered for the first time in in public
in my whole life I felt like I was partly naked
I had a address that came to the knees
and I just was a I it was our
it was exciting it was exhilarating but it was also
really really scary is terrifying
and so that's what all of us have to go through for those of us who leaves
and it was really the article that Corey urban wrote that
that really made an A want to step out
and have her story told you know with the camera on her
and before that she really didn't want that very much
and it's because of the
Republican story that she was then ready to
cutting yeah speaking at that soloman obviously comes from the X-rated
having been in the Amish community Corey you're not amish
how what was it like for you to write about this community
not having been a part of it but kinda getting a glimpse into it
there is a part of me that really
admired it and maybe even longed for it because I've the
the community because if the simple way of life
I found that very intriguing and very beautiful
but I also know that their are difficulties as there are in any
community
and so I could kinda step back from that
and see that in many ways it was very different but in many ways it was not
very different I was in Burlington at the same time Salo had left cuz I was in
college there
and I've often thought that I had come from western Massachusetts
from high school going to college slow had come from
the Amish and we're both in Burlington at the same time and how different our
lives were
but how the kind of came together in that Burlington experience
and I think that's the one thing out when I watch this film I
I know the audiences can be able to see it on Feb inventor on February 3rd
that Russia had a time and that was the
the emotional impact a bit other this community being so
knit together so tight so close
it's almost like a good thing and a bad thing anything that's what these kids
struggle with the younger
generation it's their whole life that's all it now and your family is
I think they have a stronger sands up what family truly
is then probably week even rely
well that you know among the Amish that
the the definition of a good person is how well you fit
into the group it's not about personal recognition
that is so underplayed so I think that was one of the things that was really
striking about it
is that she actually really liked
when that article came out the next time she was open for business
more than a hundred people came walking through the door
and a lot of them would stand there and go he saw you in the paper
and then not know what to say to her and so
she liked that attention but it still was not be enough
compared to the pool from the community
and and annus was AV
wanna the younger she was the second to the youngest
in her family of eleven children and she had forty nieces and nephews
back there who are missing her a great deal she was missing them
that's a great Paul tip and eventually ap poll:
one over when she decided to go back to damage community
yet what was that like has she been a part of your life or how many months
previously I
that was so hard i'd I don't think I could do it again
I am we offered to take her back because
it was an it
was really hard to think about putting her
on the bus plus she had she loves shopping and when she came
into this culture she started accumulating stuff
we went back with a car full list up all she had when she left
was the clothes on their back with a with a prayer book an oppressed people
can pocket
so you know really that was that was
pretty amazing when we actually
drove her to her parents house
and day 18 date immediately separated her from us
and I had to ask whether we may say goodbye to her
and she motioned no harkes
see how to say goodbye without yeah n you end
demeanor her demeanor changed from being
happy to go back to having her
eyes downcast and not even looking at us
it was excruciating she awesome that she was going to be shined
at that point right he knew that she wasn't going back to living the way she
was living
when she left yes but however an unheard
been away from it long enough that she had
she had fantasies about being accepted back
without those ramifications and
it was it was literally two weeks before she was going back then I suddenly
realized
in a when you go back you don't have to shut me
and she said I didn't even think of that
and now she's not allowed to write to me since they have you had
any communication with her since she she
which she wrote one letter back when I was
I wrote her every week for a while and I was not getting anything in return for a
while
then she wrote to say I and no longer
allowed to write worship this the way she put it is I'm being asked
I've promised the that the ministers that's how she put it I promise to
ministers
that I A want to forget everything about the outside world
and if I write to you I'm not forgetting outside world
and but I have heard that she is no longer living with her parents
and she's teaching school she's teaching
8 our students i think is what I heard
so thats that's fairly good news
I'm and I think only claim almost
someone that it's like to cop a tween two worlds it's like a man without a
country it's like they don't
they don't belong and either or at that is exactly what my second book bonnet
strings an Amish woman's ties to two world is about
I was in that place where Anna is now
I was there for two years any months before I left again
and I don't know whether Anna
will ever leave again or not
it its it very well could be but
I and thinking that she was more amish then I miss
I longed for and more than education
I wanted the freedom to choose my own
a spiritual journey my own Rome and
romance I wanted all of these things
to choose from myself and I had a really hard time making choices
she wanted us to do it and II was always very uncomfortable doing that
maybe she just wanted the clamps I'll that independent in that freedom
and when she caught that glimpse maybe she then longed for
like she had before eat because so many things were determined for her
its unbelievable they were not even allowed to have syncs with trains and
I'm
dry sink says what they had two years and a
you know they can't they can't finish their wood floors as
it they have to finish my certain what when can varnish a min
you know that's pretty picky on about what you can and cannot do
this week on in more extreme conservative yes sex at that Amish
community the adventure
and in like I said I have often said this and it's not an exaggeration
the difference between anna's community in my community
is probably is great is between my community in the outside world
it's that different so that's one of the things that people don't spend a lot of
people don't seem to know from looking
in from the outside is the is the diversity
among the Amish from very very conservative
to a lot more liberal well I strongly suggest people watch this documentary
when it airs on American experience because it's just so powerful and so
moving
and eek I know exactly what you mean when you say you look at me long for
that
sent to secure your clothes statements but then you also see the other side is
the Queen where it maybe even teams almost suffocating
she say or I don't know which seems like they're so much that they built
the rules and the pressure on them that I
can imagine that I would cut suffocating cuz I've never experienced it
but it certainly does seem to be more restrictive and less
I'm your allowed less choice
choices would be made for UN Anna
made the choice to to come to the outside world to the English world
but she also was then able to make the choice to go back
and now it's your choice talk about your going to be cancer screenings about this
event as well yet their second book coming out the first but why I left the
Amish in now you have your second but coming out
yes so talk about that okay and Obama strings an Amish woman's ties to two
worlds
is going to and two actually get I
the launch date for two separate there'd and then on february second
today two days before the film airs
on American experience I'm gonna have a pre-screening at the Sunderland Public
Library
Sunday at every second at 2 p.m.
a week later I'm going to be doing a book talk
also at the Sunderland Public Library also on a Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock
that on every night
great thank you so much trauma for lying in korea urban thank you
thank you