Film Explores School-Sanctioned Prayer

The Emmy Award–winning documentary School Prayer: A Community at War will be shown on Thursday, April 12, at 7:00 p.m. in Park Hall Auditorium. The film, made by associate professor of television-radio Ben Crane and former faculty member Slawomir Grünberg, won an Emmy last fall for outstanding coverage of a continuing news story. The film also won the Jan Karski Competition, which recognizes outstanding television documentaries produced on the theme of moral courage. Grünberg and Crane, along with cameraman and editor Jason Longo ’94 and associate producer Jane Greenberg, will be available for a question-and-answer session following the screening.

Five years in the making, the film tells the story of Lisa Herdahl, who moved from Wisconsin to Pontotoc County, Mississippi — 36 years after the Supreme Court outlawed school-sanctioned prayer — and found that religious devotionals were broadcast over the intercom every morning at her son’s high school. Herdahl protested and eventually sued, setting off a battle that pitted her family against the overwhelming majority of Pontotoc.

The documentary profiles the members of the Herdahl family as they cope with isolation, economic hardship, and death threats. It also takes viewers inside the homes, churches, and schools of Pontotoc County, where people reflect on the upheaval brought about by someone they regard as a troublemaker.

In 1996 the court ruled in favor of Herdahl, but she has since found herself unemployable in Pontotoc County and continues to struggle financially, even though the county was bound by state law to pay her legal costs of $144,000.

Crane, who teaches journalism, documentary, scriptwriting, and critical thinking, has written and produced works for radio, television, stage, and film. He has won the Gabriel Award, the Ohio State Award, and Columbia University’s Major Armstrong Award.

Grünberg has made more than 40 television documentaries. In 1987 he founded Log-In Productions, a professional film and video production company, which produced School Prayer: A Community at War in association with the Independent Television Service. Chelyabinsk: The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet, which Grünberg produced and directed, was awarded the Grand Prix at the International Environmental Film Festival in 1996.

Longo joined Log-In Productions after earning his degree in film, photography, and visual arts in 1994. He has worked as cameraman, editor, and sound recordist on over 20 documentaries, and his award-winning photography has appeared nationally on the cover of Independent Film and Video Monthly magazine.

Greenberg develops documentary proposals for Log-In Productions and directs and produces her own work. Her recent effort, Second Generation, won first prize at the Carolina Film and Video Festival.

For more information on School Prayer: A Community at War visit www.schoolprayer.com/film.

Photo: Lisa Herdahl, who challenged her town’s school prayer tradition, with (clockwise from top left) filmmakers Slawomir Grünberg and Ben Crane, and ACLU attorney Danny Lampley. Photo by Jason Longo ’94