The documentary “A Civil War: Elizabethtown, USA”, broadcast Wednesday at 10:15 p.m. on Arte, describes in detail, without the slightest comment, the cultural and ideological wars which are currently fracturing the country.
While Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States in Washington on January 20a documentary broadcast on Arte on Wednesday January 15 infiltrates the heart of an American community which clashes during the election of a school board in Elizabethtown (Pennsylvania). A battle between Democrats and Republicans for a seemingly insignificant election, but which nevertheless turns out to be edifying.
A civil war: Elizabethtown, USAproduced by journalist Auberi Edler, describes in detail, without the slightest comment, the cultural and ideological wars which are currently fracturing the country. From LGBTQI+ rights to gun control, American citizens on both sides seem irreconcilable. Originally titled “An American Pastoral”, this film received the award for best direction at the Amsterdam International Documentary Festival.
Director Auberi Edler spoke to franceinfo, as the populist billionaire makes his return to the White House.
Franceinfo: What did you want to show in your film?
Auberi Edler: I wanted to understand on a human level and not just on a political level how America was divided. Understand why people could no longer communicate, why this democracy has become so fragile. To illustrate what I wanted to show, I decided to follow a school board election because it seemed like an instructive and extremely revealing level of campaigning. This film was complicated to make, but it corresponds to the reality of what I was given to see.
Why did you choose to set your film in Elizabethtown?
I wanted to be in rural America, because I find that the French or European media often cover the United States mainly on both coasts, and forget that a majority of Americans live between big cities.
“This, in my opinion, is where we can take the pulse of America.”
Auberi Edler, directorat franceinfo
In Elisabethtown, there were all the components for my film, namely a local electoral campaign which took place on the right dates, a church very present in political life, a local Republican Party which had fallen into the hands of extremely religious Trumpists, with this temptation of theocracy. And then, there was this small clan of die-hard Democrats who, every three years, try to run again in the election of this school board.
Why are these school boards so politically important?
Before Donald Trump, no one cared about these commissions. Because it's a lot of work and above all, it's not paid. It was Steve Bannon who, after the failure of the assault on the Capitol, declared that we had to take power from below. The extreme right then took over the local committees of the Republican Party, getting rid of the more moderate ones, and they then set their sights on the school boards, because, through this, they can shape the education of young people. These commissions have become a real political war objective.
Was it easy to convince the protagonists of your film?
When we left for Elizabethtown in February 2023, we had no contact there. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have a lot of freedom and months of filming possible. This allowed us to have time to understand things, to listen to people and for them to also understand what we wanted to do.
Things really fell into place when the school principal agreed to film in her establishment, which has 3,200 students. Then, we were able to meet people from different political sides. Initially, the Democrats did not really want to be filmed, while the Republicans and members of the most powerful evangelical church in the city were mostly hostile.
“A few people tried to stop the filming, going so far as to object to me filming in public places.”
Auberi Edler, directorat franceinfo
How did you gain the trust of Republicans?
Mainly by listening to them. By spending a lot of time with them, I understood that among the people of this Christian nationalist right, there are deep wounds, born after the assault on the Capitol. They were particularly demonized in the media at that time, without any chance to explain what they felt and where they came from. I explained to them that I was making direct cinema, without commentary or interviews, and that we intended to cover both political sides, without ever telling either of them what we were doing.
I stuck to this commitment despite their great curiosity. Over the course of six months of filming, human connections were forged. I think that when you make this kind of documentary, it's important to see the beauty in the people you're filming, otherwise nothing is possible. There always is, because the human soul is not Manichean. Trust was thus established little by little.
We hardly sense the hatred between the two camps in your documentary…
In the film, people say hello to each other, talk to each other… However, there is real hatred and deep anger on both sides. What is disturbing and paradoxical is that deep down between Democrats and Republicans, there are a lot of points in common. However, they are locked in a blocked situation, unfortunately there is no longer any dialogue possible between them.
Whatever their political side, these citizens seem particularly religious…
I think the film helps us understand that America is an extremely Christian and religious country, it's in the country's DNA, we tend to forget it here. We often think that people on the left are just left-wing and that people on the right spend their time in church. But in fact, it's more subtle and complicated than that.
Is it the Covid-19 pandemic that has shaken up their political opinions to this extent?
Yes. For these ordinary Americans, the idea of having to wear a mask was the latest attack on their individual freedom. During this period, churches were closed to avoid contagion, people made videoconferences to follow the Sunday sermon. Some churches, among the most extremist like LifeGate, decided to defy the bans. People came in droves: from around twenty faithful, the audience then grew to around a hundred people.
“Arguably, Covid has played a surprisingly major role in American political polarization.”
Auberi Edler, directorat franceinfo
Many citizens have returned to a much more political form of religion with this desire for theocracy, to return to the Book and to apply its precepts in American political life. These extremist churches already played a social role, but this has greatly intensified. Religion always seeps into the gaps left in society by a failed state. When you dig, you find a lot of pain. There is a lot of it among these people, because America is a difficult country. Living in this pain in an intimate way for months and months is very heavy, because you can't do anything to soothe it. We can only observe it and bear witness to it.
The documentary A civil war: Elizabethtown, USAdirected by Auberi Edler, is broadcast Wednesday January 15 at 10:35 p.m. on Arte and visible on the france.tv platform.
