Everything In Its Place: Searchlight Drops Teaser For "The Testament of Ann Lee" Starring Amanda Seyfried

Searchlight has dropped a new teaser for their upcoming film The Testament of Ann Lee, which is set to arrive in select theaters next month. 

What’s Happening: 

• Searchlight Pictures has released the official trailer for their upcoming film, The Testament of Ann Lee. 
• The new film comes from award-winning writer-director Mona Fastvold (The World to Come, The Brutalist) and follows the extraordinary true legend of Ann Lee, founder of the devotional sect known as the Shakers. 
• Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried stars as the Shaker's irrepressible leader, who preached gender and social equality and was revered by her followers. 
• The Testament of Ann Lee captures the ecstasy and agony of her quest to build a utopia, featuring more than a dozen traditional Shaker hymns reimagined as rapturous movements with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall (Vox Lux) and original songs & score by Academy Award winner Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist).

• Thomasin Mckenzie, Lewis Pullman, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Stacy Martin, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Viola Prettejohn, Jamie Bogyo, and David Cale round out the cast.
• The Testament of Ann Lee arrives in select theaters on Christmas Day, and will be presented in 70mm. 

The Source Material: 

• A bit of background: Ann Lee (1736–1784) was the founder and spiritual leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers. She was born in Manchester, England, and is often referred to by her followers as Mother Ann. 
• The group came about when Lee was dissatisfied with the established Church of England, and she became involved in a small radical religious group that emphasized direct revelation and ecstatic worship. This group eventually evolved into the Shaker movement.
• The Shakers’ name came from their ecstatic style of worship, in which they would shake, dance, sing, and speak in tongues as expressions of divine inspiration. 
• In 1774, Lee and a small group of followers emigrated to New York, seeking religious freedom. They established their first community at Watervliet, near Albany. Ann Lee’s charisma and message attracted converts, especially after the American Revolution, when many were searching for new spiritual meaning.
• Today, only a handful of Shakers remain, primarily at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine, which is still an active religious community.