is a 1981 documentary that was produced by Indiana University Folklore Institute researchers and film crews from IU’s Radio & Television Services. Examining the spiritual lives of Pentecostals living in Bloomington—especially women—the ethnographic film earned academic and public accolades. It also represented an early success in the research career of Elaine Lawless, an esteemed folklorist whose 1988 book undertook a broader exploration of southern Indiana Pentecostalism based partly on the materials gathered in this project.
This collection is organized into a single series, Administrative files, that traces the documentary through its pre-production, production, and post-production phases. Folders are arranged to reflect the evolution of Joy Unspeakable from idea to release. They include information on project funding, scripting, distribution, and publicity, as well as numerous pieces of correspondence shared among producers, funders, and reviewers
Joy Unspeakable is a 1981 documentary that was produced by Indiana University Folklore Institute researchers and film crews from IU’s Radio & Television Services. Examining the spiritual lives of Pentecostals living in Bloomington—especially women—the ethnographic film earned academic and public accolades. It also represented an early success in the research career of Elaine Lawless, an esteemed folklorist whose 1988 book God's Peculiar People: Women's Voice & Folk Tradition in a Pentecostal Church undertook a broader exploration of southern Indiana Pentecostalism based partly on the materials gathered in this project
Ethnographic film is a genre that privileges the perspectives and experiences of filmic subjects. Joy Unspeakable reflects this by allowing its subjects to explain, at length, their orientations toward Pentecostalism, and by including long, uninterrupted scenes of worship meetings. Voiceover narration is minimal. While folklorists do not claim sole proprietorship of ethnographic film, they are particularly suited to produce it because of the nature of their training. Ethnography is a typical research method in folklore studies, though academic books and articles are its more common products
Joy Unspeakable is among the most well-known ethnographic films produced by folklorists. Along with Elizabeth "Betsy" Peterson, Lawless used the film to increase awareness of the female experience in a religion that is sometimes stereotyped as restricting women's freedoms. What is more, Lawless and Peterson hosted numerous public screenings of the film—some of which included people who appeared in it—as a way of fostering public dialogue about religious and gender issues
Collection is organized into a single series of Administrative files
Collection is open for research. Advance notice required
Additional records such as newsletters, annual reports, bulletins, and publications may be accessed in the Archives of Institutional Memory
Archived web sites for the Folklore Institute may be included in Archive-It
Related photographs may be available in the University Archives Photographs Database
The full documentary may be streamed for free on folkstreams.net
Copyright interests for this collection have been transferred to the Trustees of Indiana University. For more information, contact the Indiana University Archivist
Transferred from the Indiana University Folklore Institute, July 12, 2010
Accession 2010/065
Processed by Chad Edward Buterbaugh
Completed in 2015
Files listing telephone numbers and mailing addresses for project informants, as well as files listing Social Security numbers, have been shredded. No files describing the project's background or production have been removed
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