Of God and Camera

Pelosi edited the homemade footage into her first documentary, 2002's "Journeys With George," which proved to be a startling look at Bush. Pelosi's 79-minute film captured the candidate at his most casual -- chewing with his mouth open, winking at reporters, bowling fruit down the aisle of a press bus, calling the filmmaker (whom Bush seemed to have a bit of a crush on) "baby."

"Journeys," which was nominated for six Emmys and won one for nonfiction editing, in hindsight seems seminal and one of a kind. Seminal because it inspired news organizations to "embed" Pelosi-like videographers with the major candidates in 2004. One of a kind because "Journeys" might have put all candidates on alert, making every subsequent encounter with the media an exercise in self-consciousness. Consider that Pelosi's follow-up effort for HBO, "Diary of a Political Tourist," about the 2004 Democratic candidates, offered fewer revealing moments despite "hundreds and hundreds" of hours of taping.

After making that film and writing a book about the '04 race titled "Sneaking Into the Flying Circus," Pelosi didn't relish the prospect of another campaign. She'd gotten married (to Dutch journalist Michiel Vos) and was thinking about other things.

"I really had no desire to be a news nun, and be stuck on the bus with no life," she says. A light bulb went on: Maybe she could talk HBO into underwriting a documentary about evangelicals, one of the driving forces in Bush's election and reelection.

The result of that brainstorm is "Friends of God." Pelosi began filming it during her honeymoon (she and Vos canceled a trip to Italy to attend a Billy Graham rally) and finished editing it shortly before giving birth to her first child, Paul, on Nov. 13.

The "road trip" part of the film's title isn't just fanciful. Pelosi traveled to 16 states and the District to make the documentary, and found expressions of faith popping up just about everywhere along the way -- on billboards, license plates, signboards and vehicles. At several points, visibly pregnant, she nearly was run over as she stopped to film some of this highway proselytizing.

Pelosi frets that her background will influence the reaction to "Friends," in both good and bad ways. But she hopes that it will "start a conversation" about the role that evangelicals play in the culture and how the secular media ignore or demean them.

Larry Poland, who is among the few evangelicals who've seen Pelosi's new work, says her film "got beneath the surface" of the televangelist stereotype. He calls it "a fascinating and entertaining" piece.

But Poland -- whose firm, Mastermedia International, advises film and TV producers about portrayal of Christians -- also says that "Friends" has a few problems.

"She's got a lot of people who are clearly the fringe people of the evangelical community," he says. "Most of the evangelicals in this country are pretty straight-arrow types. They're gracious, mom-'n'-apple pie types who care about their families and their kids. I guess it would be really boring if she focused on those people, but that's the reality. She focused on some who are kooks."

Poland adds: "It's a little like sitting for a portrait and you get your proofs back and some of them are just awful, even though all of them are pictures of the same thing. She's clearly an outsider, and she went to segments of the community that are, let's say, more interesting than representative. I know HBO isn't the Learning Channel or PBS, but some of these people are just bizarre. . . . Bottom line, it's not a piece we would have done."

For her part, Pelosi says she came away with new respect and renewed skepticism about her subject.

"I've never been 100 percent sure about anything," she says, "but because they have the Bible, they're 100 percent sure. I'm not pretending I have all the answers. That's the difference between me and them."

And that makes her feel how? A little creepy, perhaps?

"Yes, I do feel that way. They're so sure they've got all the answers, they've stopped asking the questions."