Missouri State’s Dr. Amy Artman, senior instructor in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Religions, will appear as a subject matter expert in “Better Angels: The Gospel According to Tammy Faye,” a documentary film on the life of evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
The film premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Jan. 19.
The festival will present the first two episodes of the four-part mini-series in person Jan. 19-20 and 28 and online to credentialed press and industry Jan. 24-28, according to the festival’s website.
“Voice and insights would be an incredibly powerful addition”
On Oct. 11, 2022, Artman received both a call and an email from Irish filmmaker Helen Rollins.
Rollins was asking Artman if she would be willing to serve as a subject matter expert on an upcoming documentary about the American religious leader Tammy Faye Bakker.
“I was hoping to be able to talk to you and perhaps interview you for our production, given your work on religion in America, especially on Aimee Semple MacPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, Pentecostalism and women in American religion,” Rollins told Artman. “Your voice and insights would be an incredibly powerful addition to our film.”
Things moved quickly from there.
Through Zoom, Artman met with the film’s director, Dana Shapiro, and other executives on Oct. 26.
“In the initial Zoom meeting with Dana, he lined out clearly his hopes for my contribution, which would be to provide the religious backdrop for Tammy Faye as a Pentecostal and as a female religious leader in a conservative religious environment,” Artman said. “My main role was to provide context for Tammy Faye Bakker’s Pentecostal background.”
By the end of the meeting, they had all agreed that Artman was “a good fit” for the documentary.
And by Nov. 9, she was in Los Angeles, ready to work.
Previous scholarship highlighted expert credentials
Shapiro became aware of Artman’s scholarship on American Pentecostalism when he read her book “The Miracle Lady: Kathryn Kuhlman and the Transformation of American Christianity,” which was published in 2019.
“When he was later involved in the Tammy Faye project, the production members were brainstorming about who they could get to add some scholarly gravitas and context to the production,” Artman said.
“Dana told me he had said, ‘If I can get Amy Artman, that would be great,’” Artman added. “I was delighted!”
Background on Kuhlman helped understand Bakker
Kuhlman appealed to Artman as a research topic because her life as a healing evangelist was “an excellent narrative backdrop to tell the story of the charismatic renewal movement in the United States in the mid-twentieth century.”
“The scandal-ridden world of televangelism in the ’80s wasn’t ever as interesting to me as the more groovy, beach-baptism days of the charismatic renewal movement in the ’60s and ’70s,” Artman said.
Her academic interest in Bakker was initially more indirect. “My work on Kuhlman only gestured in the Epilogue (to my book) toward figures who followed her, such as Tammy Faye,” Artman said.
Yet her work on Kuhlman helped Artman have a better understanding of Bakker.
“Working on Kuhlman prepared me to take seriously a figure [like Bakker] who at first glance is off-putting to anyone not familiar with the vibrance of Holy Spirit-filled Christianities in America,” Artman said. “I had studied the Pentecostal background of ministries such as that of Kuhlman and the Bakkers. Kuhlman was a pioneer in the Christian talk-show format, and I did a great deal of work on her use of media, especially television, which came in handy in understanding the world of Bakker.”
“In many ways, there wouldn’t have been a Tammy Faye if there hadn’t been a Kuhlman,” Artman added.
Set encouraged “comfortable conversation”
Artman arrived on the set, a “California-style bungalow tucked back in the Hollywood hills,” on Nov. 10.
“We turned down a street in the neighborhood of the shoot and I was looking directly at the Hollywood sign in the hills in front of me!” Artman said. “It was so surreal and made me laugh at the fabulous unreality of it all.”
Artman described how, upon entering the bustling set, she was warmly welcomed and then escorted to Shapiro, where the director had a chance to review his plans.
“After explaining the logistics and getting me a mug of tea, I sat down and we just started talking while the camera filmed. Everything was professional but gentle and laid back,” Artman said. “What I enjoyed best was how Dana led me calmly into a comfortable conversation where I felt like I was able to share what I had to offer in a natural and engaging way.”
Shapiro and others reminded Artman that only a few minutes of her roughly three hours of recorded interview would appear in the final version of the film. Knowing this gave her “a nice sense of freedom to speak at length.”
“They encouraged me just to answer naturally and however felt best, and they would edit out what didn’t work,” Artman said.
And while the documentary places heavy focus on Bakker’s later life, Artman was brought on to “better situate her background in Pentecostalism.”
“The topics were focused around the world of Pentecostalism, the experiences of a woman making her way as a leader in Pentecostalism, and the place within Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity for a personality who could be seen as outrageous, yet also a powerful conduit for the Holy Spirit,” Artman said.
Bakker’s authenticity deserves recognition
Artman believes the documentary captures Bakker’s authenticity.
“Tammy Faye was a flawed and complex person, but the documentary is poised to show her determination to be herself, to take up space in a world that wanted to make her small and domesticated,” Artman explained. “She had a definite quirky charisma throughout her life, a way of being boldly weird that was yet authentic to who she was.”
Previous examinations of Bakker have focused on her “outrageous makeup and dramatic weeping,” according to Artman. More recent explorations, however, such as “Better Angels,” have shifted that focus to Bakker’s willingness to push back in often surprising ways.
Bakker’s criticism of the negative conservative Christian response to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s serves as one example, Artman said. In 1985, Bakker invited Steve Pieters, an ordained minister and AIDS patient, onto her show to discuss his diagnosis, faith and sexuality.
“It was this action in particular that led to Tammy Faye’s welcome into the LGBTQ community and has shifted her reception by history from huckster queen to gay icon,” Artman said. “Her decision to be an ally for AIDS patients from the televised pulpit of a Pentecostal media empire was in accord with her commitment to her own path that she had held her entire life.”
Documentary an opportunity to understand historical realities of female religious leaders
Artman acknowledged the complex natures of historical persons like Bakker and Kuhlman require “nuanced exploration.”
“Studying and talking about female leaders in conservative religious environments can be frustrating, because these women are often manipulative, obtuse, disturbingly lacking in self-awareness, and at the same time admirable, inspiring, brilliant and heart-achingly brave,” Artman said.
“Both Kuhlman and Bakker fit this description, and both were fabulously outrageous in their affect, dress and communication style. Both require nuanced exploration of the realities faced by women in evangelical Christianity as they lived out their call.”