young man wrestling with his own relationship to god. “I feel so alone,” we read in one journal entry. “I’m still struggling to conform my lifestyle to what is required. The trouble is my too lackadaisical not-willing-to-give100% attitude.” Perhaps the most unsettling current running through The Return of Elder Pingree involves the politics of Guatemala: the long shadow of the civil war and the rising tide of a violent drug trade. A powerful scene in the film returns Pingree to a dirt village road where he once witnessed the murder of three civilians, while another observes a present-day vigil held for the disappeared. “The two things that would get you sent home as a missionary were having sex and talking about politics,” Pingree remembers. Though he is no longer afraid to broach the political, the film is not a political tract. With no axe to grind, The Return of Elder Pingree allows for paradox and acknowledges that in some ways the Mormon church, at least in Guatemala, may be a positive force in the lives of its adherents, offering them community and haven. This is not a film about the finality of judgement, however, but the ongoing ambiguity of relationships. In scene after scene we watch former friends reckon with how they have changed while refusing to betray the fondness of shared memories. The Return of Elder Pingree premiered at the Santa Cruz Film Festival, received last year’s Grand Jury Prize at the Lonely Seal Film, Screenwriting, and Music Festival, won both Best Director and Best Documentary Feature awards at Irvine, California’s Silent River Film Festival, and is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime and through Filmocracy. It also served as the closing film for Cinema and Change, the eight-week online summer course for incoming Oberlin students. Given the abiding focus on themes of ritual, identity, and coming-of-age, it is perhaps fitting that the last film in the series reveals that even Oberlin professors were once confused 19-year-olds. It also shows that however swift coming-of-age may or may not be, coming to terms with one’s youth can take years, even decades. Joshua Sperling is visiting assistant professor of cinema studies and creative writing. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW. RETURNOFELDERPINGREE.COM. TO PURCHASE THE FILM, USE DISCOUNT CODE Obies2021. OBERLIN ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2020 FALL/WINTER
POEM
The Goat SUSANNA KITTREDGE ’98
I thought a poem last night in bed, something about a goat and an apple? I just know it was brilliant. I wanted to get up and write but the blankets had me pinned down, whispering “Shushhh. You’ll remember it in the morning. How could you forget a poem as beautiful as this?”
But now the words are gone and all I can see is the rough field of grass and thistle and the rough, dumb goat standing there with its rear toward me, its head turned slightly to the right as it tries to remember why it picked up the sweet, shiny, red thing in its mouth and what it was going to do next.
“The Goat,” from Susanna Kittredge’s first full-length poetry collection, The Future Has a Reputation , published in 2020 by CW Books, Cincinnati, Ohio 17