Inside The Testament of Ann Lee: Music, Movement, and a Visionary Story

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Go inside The Testament of Ann Lee as award-winning filmmaker Mona Fastvold brings the extraordinary true story of Shaker founder Ann Lee to life. Starring Amanda Seyfried, the film blends devotion, struggle, and reimagined Shaker hymns through striking movement and choreography. Opens in select theaters on Christmas. Get tickets now.

Transcript

00:00The Testament of Anne Lee is about the woman who started the Shaker Movement.

00:08The Shakers lived their life in song.

00:11That was just part of their worship.

00:13They moved and they shook and they were ecstatic.

00:16Using the rhythms of these breaths, these body slaps,

00:20that rhythm would take you through the film.

00:22Legend has it, this is what happened to Anne Lee.

00:30The first collaborators I brought in was Celia Rausenholt, who choreographed the film,

00:34and Daniel Blumberg.

00:36Daniel composed the score and wrote original songs for the film,

00:41inspired by Shaker hymns or poems or texts.

00:48After reading the script, the first sounds that I heard in my head

00:52were vocal sounds, body sounds, and from there I started adding melodies.

01:00There's over a hundred minutes of music in the film.

01:04All of it was recorded in strange places.

01:07So it's got this really wild sound that I've never heard before.

01:12We'll go out and make our presence known.

01:18Getting Daniel's music really informed a lot of the choreography.

01:23Breathing, singing, stomping, moving the limbs.

01:28Celia works in quite a similar way to some of the musicians that I work with.

01:32There's this sort of improvised quality.

01:34So now we throw the dance away and we just exist.

01:38We want to make sure that it feels very authentic to the actual religion.

01:44To reach this spiritual place through the physical body.

01:48It takes a very specific kind of skill to create a dance that feels completely improv.

01:58And a sway.

02:00Bringing it together.

02:02We had a full roadmap before we'd even walk onto set.

02:08I knew exactly where the camera was going to be.

02:12We just worked hours and hours and hours for weeks.

02:16I couldn't breathe sometimes.

02:18Amanda was working with the choreography almost a year in advance of shooting.

02:23To be able to sing live, dance, perform was hard.

02:28But I love that challenge.

02:29With Anne Lee, I knew that I needed someone who was just willing to just completely give themselves to this performance.

02:36To see Mona make such an ambitious project on this scale is impressive and inspiring.

02:45When you watch 200 people dancing and singing together, you become part of that sort of intoxicating feeling.

02:55The feeling of it and the heartbeat of it is absolutely one of a kind.

03:01The time is near at hand.

03:03I know it.

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