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Knocking (2006 film)

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Knocking is a 2006 documentary film directed by Joel Engardio [1] and Tom Shepard that focuses on the civil liberties fought for by Jehovah's Witnesses. It primarily focuses on the stories of three Jehovah's Witnesses, and how their lives illustrate three fundamental Witness teachings that have affected society at large in surprising ways: The refusal to participate in war, accept blood transfusions, or salute the flag.

Knocking won the jury award for best documentary at the 2006 USA Film Festival in Dallas and the audience award for best documentary at the 2006 Indianapolis International Film Festival. It has shown at film festivals in Trenton, New Jersey; Flint, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Reno, Nevada; East Lansing, Michigan.

Knocking's first televised broadcast was on the PBS series Independent Lens at 10pm on May 22, 2007 on most PBS stations. It was also broadcast on the Australian television program Compass on May 18, 2008. The documentary is also available on DVD.

Main characters

Lillian Gobitas
As a girl in Pennsylvania, she and thousands of other Witness children's refusal to salute the United States flag set off a firestorm of controversy that led to a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court ruling on freedom of religion.
Joseph Kempler
Born a Jew, he converted to the Jehovah's Witness faith following World War II after observing their integrity alongside Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Although he married after the war, his wife died and his daughter was raised by a relative. After converting, Kempler remarried and had two sons, but remained distant from his daughter's Jewish family. In order to draw his family closer together, Kempler took them on a trip to Europe to see his home country and visit the Melk and Auschwitz concentration camps.
Seth Thomas
A 23-year-old Witness, who despite the risk and opposition from a non-Witness family, refused any blood transfusions with his liver transplant operation. While initially refused treatment by the Baylor University Medical Center of Texas, surgeons with the University of Southern California University Hospital in Los Angeles agreed to perform the operation, believing that research in bloodless surgery is necessary and should be explored.

Director

Joel P. Engardio was the recipient of the 2000 National Press Foundation award for science writing. In 2003, his opinion writing was recognized with a first place award by the Society of Professional Journalists in Northern California. He was a finalist for the University of Missouri-Columbia 1999 national writing award in multicultural journalism. Engardio has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Weekly, Newsweek, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and P.O.V. magazine. In radio, he has written essays broadcast on NPR’s This I Believe series and KQED-San Francisco’s Perspectives. In television, Engardio worked as an associate producer for ABC News at the newsmagazine 20/20 and the network's documentary unit, Turning Point. Engardio wrote, narrated and directed Knocking, a documentary on Jehovah’s Witnesses that was nationally broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2007. It was named Best Documentary at the 2006 USA Film Festival. Engardio graduated from Michigan State University, majoring in journalism and history. He was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan. His mother was the only member of a large Italian Catholic family to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Engardio hence was raised in the religion, but he never devouted himself to the faith when he grew up. Engardio currently lives in New York where he does communication work for the American Civil Liberties Union.

USA Today article http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/05/opening_the_doo.html

NPR broadcast http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16505529

Newsweek article http://www.newsweek.com/id/34541

DVD Lecture Series

In the Special Features section of the DVD there is a series of lectures about different subjects pertaining to Jehovah's Witnesses. Lawyers, Doctors, Historians and Witness Elders all deal with these different topics. These topics are: Blood Transfusions, Witness legal rights and their legal history, Witnesses during Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and internal matters within the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Film Festival awards

Knocking has won:

  • Best Documentary, Jury Award, 2006 USA Film Festival (Dallas)
  • Best Documentary, Jury Award, 2006 Trenton Film Festival (New Jersey)
  • Best Documentary, Audience Award, 2006 Indianapolis International Film Festival
  • Best First Film, Jury Award, 2006 Long Island International Film Expo (New York)
  • Official Selection, 2006 Cleveland International Film Festival

See also

References

  1. ^ Miller, Lisa, Newsweek, May 28, 2007, Belief Watch: Witness, http://www.newsweek.com/id/34541
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