Educational Media Reviews Online

Five religious women all too briefly discuss their lesbianism within the context in the church. Coni Staff mentions how her coming out has caused a rift in her formerly tight knit family. Kathryn Poethig, who grew up in a missionary family in the Philippines and later lived in an Evangelical house church, relates the sense of exile that she feels has infused most of her life. Religious artist, Nancy Chinn, tersely recounts her realization of being a lesbian after a twenty-five year marriage to a pastor. Lisa Larges, a former seminary student who is blind, states that just as she doesn't want society to merely accommodate her as a blind person, but to value her, she similarly wants the church to value her as a lesbian and celebrate the deep spiritual gifts that she has to offer because of who she is. She did not go on to ordination because as she puts it: "Until the church repents of its homophobia, I cannot be ordained to seek a call." Last of the women profiled, is Victoria Rue, a former nun who is now involved in theatrical work.

Several common threads emerge from the reflections of these five women, including a feeling of alienation before coming out; a sense of "coming home" upon coming out; and the recognition that no matter how much they have given and still give to the church, they are no longer valued because they live their lives as lesbians. Unfortunately, the profiles of each of these women are necessarily short and superficial. These women have a lot to say, but sadly not much of an opportunity to deliver little more than sound bites. The producers of the film interweave the women's revelations with overly long sequences of the women's artistic endeavors - theatrical performances, readings, paintings, and sculpture - at the expense of gaining a deeper understanding of these women and each of their particular situations. Including these sequences would have worked better had the video been longer.

A handful of quotes from St. Augustine, Tertullian, and St. Mechtilde which blame the Biblical Eve for the world's evil and one from Cardinal Raczinger calling homosexuality "an intrinsic moral disorder" place the video's title within context. However, the context of the rest of the video is rather vague. We see these women coming together in a welcoming church environment without any explanation of where they are.

The production values are fairly good, although there is some jumpy editing. In one particular sequence, Lisa Larges is cut off in mid-thought as the video transitions to one of the other women.

Eve's Daughters is part of a trilogy of videos. The other two are Maybe We're Talking About a Different God <http://wings.buffalo.edu/mcjreview/977928424.html> and Your Mom's a Lesbian <http://wings.buffalo.edu/mcjreview/967050413.html> which focus respectively on the Rev. Jane Spahr's personal and professional life. This particular video does not clearly explain its relationship to the other two except through inference. Only those familiar with the subject matter of other two videos will recognize Jane Spahr's cameo appearance in the church service attended by the women profiled in this video or will know that one of them is her significant other, Coni Staff. The producers of the video promise that "The proceeds from this documentary will go toward Eve's Daughter's Part II, which will explore the experience of women of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds." Hopefully, that forthcoming video will rectify the many shortcomings of the current one.