Thanks for your interest in the KNOCKING documentary
on Jehovah's Witnesses.
I'm Joel Engardio, director of the project. Since the
www.knocking.org web site went live a few days ago,
I've been hearing from Jehovah's Witnesses like
yourselves from Arizona to Arkansas and everywhere in
between. Some have commented that the film clip
downloads don't work. The site is brand new, and is
still a work in progress. Check back from time to time
to see new bells and whistles. Also, please note that
my email address will change in a few weeks to
.

It's been great to hear from so many Witnesses around
the United States. Hopefully word will spread to
other countries in Europe and beyond. Please feel
forward the link www.knocking.org to all your friends
far and wide.
Beyond a national broadcast on PBS in the United
States, my goal is to make the film available to
international audiences with language subtitles.
Indeed, Jehovah's Witnesses are in more than 200
lands, and their story about blood, the Holocaust and
preservation of civil liberties resonates around the
globe.

The aim of KNOCKING is to give a general,
non-Jehovah's Witness audience a fair look at a
religious group that has long been misunderstood and
relegated to cartoonish stereotypes. KNOCKING uses the
real life stories of real families to humanize
Jehovah's Witnesses. We show both the ups and downs,
including what it is like to have unbelieving or
opposing family members, and how divided families can
find common ground. For instance, the young man who
does a groundbreaking bloodless liver transplant has
opposing family members who come to the hospital to
see first-hand that the new bloodless technology
works.

I think KNOCKING will be educational and illuminating
for a non-Jehovah's Witness audience, affirming for
those who are Jehovah's Witnesses, and compelling and
entertaining for all. I imagine Jehovah's Witnesses
will enjoy the film and will want their extended
family, neighbors, co-workers and classmates to take a
look as well.

We will eventually offer DVDs for home and school use.
There will be a special introductory rate for
Jehovah's Witnesses. I'll be sure to send more details
on that later.

In the coming months, I'll send periodic newsletter
updates on the film. If you don't want these updates,
just write back and tell me to take you off the
mailing list.

As of June 3, 2005, the film is being edited in San
Francisco. We finished production earlier this year.
Throughout the course of the project, we filmed in
California, Georgia, Ohio, New York, Nevada, and Texas
as well as Austria and Poland. We may have filmed in
your congregation or at one of your conventions!

Throughout the summer we will continue to edit,
crafting more than 200 hours of footage into a 60 or
90 minute final film. Thankfully, the DVD will be able
to retain all the wonderful additional scenes and
interviews that end up on the cutting room floor.

The film will be delivered to PBS in the fall, and it
will be entered in film festivals such as Sundance. In
early 2006, we hope the film will premiere at a
prestigious film festival. The national television
broadcast on PBS would follow later in 2006. Between a
film festival premiere and the national broadcast, we
hope to bring KNOCKING to cities throughout the United
States for special screenings in community event
theaters. This will be a chance for you to see a sneak
preview and perhaps meet some of the film's subjects
in a live Q&A session. The KNOCKING web site and
messages like this email to you will provide
information about where and when the sneak previews
will take place.
If you are interested in organizing such a screening
in your city, please contact me directly and we can
talk more about how to make that happen. I plan to use
local volunteers to organize these screenings. If you
write back about volunteering to organize a screening
in your area, please be sure to type "Volunteer" in
the message subject heading so I will know to give it
extra attention.

Please keep in mind that every Jehovah's Witness who
has contributed to this film, either on camera or
behind the scenes, has done so by their own personal
choice. There is no official connection to Watchtower,
though the Bethel organization in Brooklyn, Patterson
and Wallkill, New York has been cooperative with the
producers of this film. It is important to know that
this project is independently produced for public
television, using public funds. We feel this lends
added credibility to the film when viewed by a
non-Jehovah's Witness audience. No one on the
production staff is a Jehovah's Witness. The
director's mother, however, is a Witness in Michigan.

I look forward to seeing the positive impact this
film has in telling the untold stories of Jehovah's
Witnesses. I hope you do, too. Thanks again for
contacting us, and the KNOCKING staff will be sure to
keep you up to date on the latest progress.

Sincerely,
Joel P. Engardio
Producer/Director