In the National Film Board of Canada documentary, director and star Donna Read is joined by Starhawk to produce the 1993 film Full Circle (Full Circle (1993)). Featuring numerous interviews and ritual footage, this documentary provides a personal touch to the practice of women’s spirituality. With a specific focus on paganism, a collection of Earth-based religious practices, Read and Starhawk interview a group of women from Canada along with visiting other countries to experience culturally different practices of women’s spirituality. Their travels include America, Greece, England, and Mexico. In their journeys, they interviewed lesbians, mothers, feminists, Wiccans, midwives, an indigenous woman of Mexico, youth and elders, and one man. Despite the numerous backgrounds of those interviewed, the film highlights the relationship present between faith, feminism, and environmental justice. In an effort to highlight these commonalities, three major themes run throughout the film: ties of kinship, nature-themed music, and open landscapes.
The first image appears with the telling of a creation story where the narrator proclaims, “The First Woman became First Mother and had many children. She called them her rainbow family,” which would regather if First Mother needed protection. Without delay, the narrator then brings in the audience as a part of the rainbow family with her as an image of a rainbow is shown. Throughout the film, images of kinship continue to form in unexpected ways. In particular, the film cuts repeatedly to scenes of the narrator around a table of women, not unlike consciousness-raising circles of the early feminist movements, where discussions of how they are both, queer and heteronormative families are impacted by climate change, patriarchy, and faith. Despite these queer kinship models, they only mention the gender binary’s impact on faith. I imagine contentions would arise around discussions of non-binary individuals as connectedness through images of the vagina and menstruation are used as symbols of power. Nevertheless, the testimonies of these cisgender women act as a bond of kinship through their similar experiences despite different faiths. The narrator builds on this to progress the film, telling her own personal spiritual journey where she provides details of her own changing thoughts. She utilizes this to conclude the film with the realization that, “One truth stands out, no matter who we are or where we live we all stand on common ground,” which is coupled with the image of the rainbow again.
Furthering the interconnectedness of goddess traditions, background music emphasizes the individual accounts of the women. With each different account told, music with string, wind, and drum influences play. Additionally, the same occurs with the narrator’s explanation of history around goddess figures or the environment. Consequently, the choice to play similar types of music during discussions of different topics emphasizes the mutual importance and relationship of the topics. In contention, however, the only perspectives brought forth are those who concur that women’s spirituality is a powerful force.
While kinship and music enhance ties between women’s spirituality, the audience is invited to draw their own conclusions through open landscapes scattered through the film. These scenes typically feature natural background sounds and allow for a pause after an ideology is proposed. A majority of these scenes feature oceans or fields and pose a feeling of vastness in the world. This intervention allows the viewer to value their own experiences. Consequently, this allows the film’s idea of the “personal is political and the political is personal” to be felt not only by those interviewed but those watching to come full circle to the idea we are all connected. Inherently, this allows for pushback on the lack of discussion around gender and those who disagree as one can reflect on their own opinions of the women without bias.
All in all, this film introduces a unique perspective on how identifiable differences can be brought forth to find similarities within women’s spiritually, a topic often left out of mainstream discussions. It offers a multitude of perspectives, which illustrates how faith can influence the political platform of an individual while also being attentive to the viewer. While I recommend the film for these highlights, I do wish there was more dialogue around ideas that push back against the women’s spirituality movement seeing as the only male perspective agreed wholeheartedly with the power of the goddess-centered faiths. Additionally, gender is seen as a binary and is inattentive to those who fall outside that spectrum. Granted, for the time frame, this film provides genuine insight into the political lives of women spiritualists.
(February 2017)
Works Cited
“Full Circle (1993).” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.
