This remarkable documentary depicts a vivid example of America's current culture war: the struggle between clashing values of social conservatives and liberals, focused in this instance on a rural community undergoing the painful transition from a timber industry town to one increasingly dominated by "urban immigrants": the professionals and techies - high and low - who make up the ranks of the information age. In 1980 there were 12 lumber mills around Philomath, now it's down to 2. The largest employers in the area nowadays are Oregon State University, in neighboring Corvallis, and a Hewlett-Packard calculator repair center.
Rex Clemens (1901-1985) was a Philomath high school dropout who later became a wealthy lumberman. He dearly loved his old school and never missed a Philomath Warriors football game. In 1959 he endowed a unique foundation with a mission of supporting school building projects and providing 4-year college scholarships to any kid that graduated high school. Thousands of kids have had their chance at a higher education thanks to this unique program.
But about five years ago the school board hired a new superintendent, a liberal outsider, an educator from Chicago with a Ph.D. and a vision of teaching critical thinking to kids on themes that include the environmental impact of industries like logging. The student dress code was scrapped. A Gay-Straight Alliance group of students was encouraged. The high school mascot - The Warrior - was challenged, and its symbol, a five foot tall wood carved statue of a rather sad, bedraggled looking American Indian, was removed from the high school lobby.
It was all too much for the citizens with longstanding roots in the town, especially for Rex Clemens's three nephews, now in charge of the foundation. Led by one of them, Steve Lowther, battle was joined between the traditionalists and the new wave, led by the superintendent, Dr. Terry Kneisler, and his backers. After multiple skirmishes, Lowther forced a showdown, telling the school board that either Kneisler goes or the foundation will withdraw its school support and scholarship program.
In the film, producer/director/editor Peter Richardson lets the people of the town tell this story in a series of well edited interview segments. Richardson had grown up in Philomath and was able to gain the confidence of people on all sides of the debate. Everybody gets their say here. In that regard, unlike the one-sided propagandistic thrust of most recent documentaries on social issues (think of the films of Michael Moore or Robert Greenwald), this is one of the most balanced accounts I've seen in years.
That's not to say that Richardson is entirely neutral. By the end of the film, a perspective does emerge, and it is not very favorable to Mr. Lowther and his backers. But this leaning is not the result of any editorializing on Mr. Richardson's part. Instead, like the documentarist, Errol Morris, Richardson simply encourages all parties to talk away, and, in the case of Mr. Lowther, Richardson gives him enough rope to hang himself, his latent violence cloaked in Christian virtue, clueless about the vast contradictions in his views.
Lowther accuses Kneisler and his backers of pursuing a "social agenda" instead of "training these kids to become good workers and taxpayers." He and his brothers modify the Clemens Foundation scholarship criteria, first by going national, and also requiring that applicants be well behaved by traditional standards, come from a family with its roots in the timber, agriculture or mining industries, and have a career goal in one of these vocations. Doesn't he think that's a social agenda? Lowther fumes because the school board insisted that fact finding hearings be open to the public, rather than have closed meetings in a "manly" fashion.
More manly to meet in hiding than out in the open? Why not be even more manly and wear hoods? (Lowther refers not once but twice to his wish to have tarred and feathered Kneisler and run him out of town.) The loss of traditional values and activities is disorienting to established citizens of any community, and the newcomers, the urban immigrants, are no less disoriented when they move away from their roots and enter a town that has lost its cultural bearings. These issues are real, and answers to resolve the conflicts are far from "clear cut." It was either FDR or H. L. Mencken who once said that for every complex social problem there is a simple answer, and it is always wrong. There is no one right point of view that will satisfy all interests.
Richardson and his film respect the diversity of opinions of the townspeople. Philomath is a microcosm of the cultural ferment that is in evidence broadly in our land. That makes this film all the more poignant and relevant. It's a gem of a film. My grade: A- 9/10
Rex Clemens (1901-1985) was a Philomath high school dropout who later became a wealthy lumberman. He dearly loved his old school and never missed a Philomath Warriors football game. In 1959 he endowed a unique foundation with a mission of supporting school building projects and providing 4-year college scholarships to any kid that graduated high school. Thousands of kids have had their chance at a higher education thanks to this unique program.
But about five years ago the school board hired a new superintendent, a liberal outsider, an educator from Chicago with a Ph.D. and a vision of teaching critical thinking to kids on themes that include the environmental impact of industries like logging. The student dress code was scrapped. A Gay-Straight Alliance group of students was encouraged. The high school mascot - The Warrior - was challenged, and its symbol, a five foot tall wood carved statue of a rather sad, bedraggled looking American Indian, was removed from the high school lobby.
It was all too much for the citizens with longstanding roots in the town, especially for Rex Clemens's three nephews, now in charge of the foundation. Led by one of them, Steve Lowther, battle was joined between the traditionalists and the new wave, led by the superintendent, Dr. Terry Kneisler, and his backers. After multiple skirmishes, Lowther forced a showdown, telling the school board that either Kneisler goes or the foundation will withdraw its school support and scholarship program.
In the film, producer/director/editor Peter Richardson lets the people of the town tell this story in a series of well edited interview segments. Richardson had grown up in Philomath and was able to gain the confidence of people on all sides of the debate. Everybody gets their say here. In that regard, unlike the one-sided propagandistic thrust of most recent documentaries on social issues (think of the films of Michael Moore or Robert Greenwald), this is one of the most balanced accounts I've seen in years.
That's not to say that Richardson is entirely neutral. By the end of the film, a perspective does emerge, and it is not very favorable to Mr. Lowther and his backers. But this leaning is not the result of any editorializing on Mr. Richardson's part. Instead, like the documentarist, Errol Morris, Richardson simply encourages all parties to talk away, and, in the case of Mr. Lowther, Richardson gives him enough rope to hang himself, his latent violence cloaked in Christian virtue, clueless about the vast contradictions in his views.
Lowther accuses Kneisler and his backers of pursuing a "social agenda" instead of "training these kids to become good workers and taxpayers." He and his brothers modify the Clemens Foundation scholarship criteria, first by going national, and also requiring that applicants be well behaved by traditional standards, come from a family with its roots in the timber, agriculture or mining industries, and have a career goal in one of these vocations. Doesn't he think that's a social agenda? Lowther fumes because the school board insisted that fact finding hearings be open to the public, rather than have closed meetings in a "manly" fashion.
More manly to meet in hiding than out in the open? Why not be even more manly and wear hoods? (Lowther refers not once but twice to his wish to have tarred and feathered Kneisler and run him out of town.) The loss of traditional values and activities is disorienting to established citizens of any community, and the newcomers, the urban immigrants, are no less disoriented when they move away from their roots and enter a town that has lost its cultural bearings. These issues are real, and answers to resolve the conflicts are far from "clear cut." It was either FDR or H. L. Mencken who once said that for every complex social problem there is a simple answer, and it is always wrong. There is no one right point of view that will satisfy all interests.
Richardson and his film respect the diversity of opinions of the townspeople. Philomath is a microcosm of the cultural ferment that is in evidence broadly in our land. That makes this film all the more poignant and relevant. It's a gem of a film. My grade: A- 9/10
