Riots, elections, democracy are the focus of Lancaster filmmaker’s latest documentary

• By Jaxon White/LNP | LancasterOnline

Lancaster filmmaker Mary Haverstick has brought her camera to the frontlines of some of the most tumultuous political and social events of the past four years, starting with the civil unrest in Lancaster after the September 2020 police shooting of 27-year-old Ricardo Muñoz.

Two years later, she and her camera were on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., as news broke that the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion had been overturned. This year, she’s been tracking the presidential election, a race that is expected to hinge on which candidate wins Pennsylvania and a handful of other battleground states.

Haverstick has curated much of that footage into her latest project, “Tipping Point PA” – a documentary following four Democratic candidates who’ve sought offices across Pennsylvania since 2020. She described it as “a documentary that’s following the action.”

“Having a window into some of the detailed resolution that’s happening here, getting kind of a more granular image of what’s happening on the ground in Pennsylvania, is going to be really important to history,” Haverstick said.

Haverstick said she originally planned to follow four candidates in the 2020 election cycle, but the COVID pandemic shut down production of her film in its first month. She then scaled back her plans, choosing to follow Democratic congressional candidate Sara Hammond as she sought to unseat U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker.

By the end of 2020, she had enough footage to make a short film. But after a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, Haverstick said she decided to continue to document how Pennsylvania had become a pivotal state in national elections.

“The film has broadened out to much more national topics: election denial, democracy at stake, and ultimately where the United States is going to go,” Haverstick said. “Pennsylvania, now in 2024, is going to be determinative as far as where that democracy is going to go from here.”

Many political pundits agree with Haverstick. Pennsylvania holds 19 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, and the state’s last two presidential results came down to about 1% of the total votes cast statewide.

This summer, Haverstick filmed the two major presidential campaigns as they courted Pennsylvania voters – at Trump’s July 31 rally in Harrisburg and Vice Kamala Harris’ August 6 rally in Philadelphia where she introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Haverstick has largely self-funded the film. She launched a fundraising campaign this month through Kickstarter to buy more equipment, including more hard drives, and to hire an editing team to finish the documentary.

Haverstick said she was hesitant to commit to any strict release date, but she plans to release the project sometime in 2026. She’s also looking to connect with a historical organization that can archive the remaining footage she’s gathered since 2020.

Four candidates

Haverstick’s first subject was Hammond, a progressive Democrat who won just 37% of the vote against Smucker in 2020. Hammond said Haverstick and her partner Michele Mercure, who serves as producer and composer of the film, were like “flies on the wall” during her campaign.

“It was very organic and they just wanted to capture what was happening,” Hammond said.

Throughout the campaign, Haverstick filmed interviews with Hammond and her family, many of whom hold disagree with Hammond’s political beliefs.

“I think it’s important to represent various views within the film, and we find unique ways to do that,” Haverstick said, noting she wants the film to depict the family’s “navigation” of political differences. She did not shadow any Republican candidates in the film.

In 2021, Haverstick followed Tyler Titus as they campaigned to become Erie County executive. Titus, who did not respond to a request for comment, would have been the highest elected trans official in the country had they won, according to Haverstick.

The following year she followed Harrisburg city council member Shamaine Daniels as she sought to unseat U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican who formerly chaired the conservative Freedom Caucus.

Daniels said her campaign, which was ultimately unsuccessful, was a “whirlwind” and it was “incredibly meaningful” to have Haverstick document the experience.

“Running for office was always an opportunity to elevate the issues I care about,” said Daniels, who attempted to challenge Perry again this year but lost in a multi-candidate Democratic primary that saw former WGAL anchor Janelle Stelson advance to the general election.

To cover the presidential race in Pennsylvania this year, Haverstick is following Philadelphia state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta’s campaign for state auditor general. Kenyatta could not be reached for comment.

Democracy and election denial

As Trump and his allies continued to deny President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over the past four years, Haverstick said that refusal to concede defeat started to “crystalize” as a theme in the film.

That focus was one reason Daniels said she agreed to join the documentary.

“I started to run for office partly because I don’t tolerate corruption,” Daniels said. “It’s an insidious way to rip apart how our democratic systems are supposed to function.”

Both Smucker and Perry supported Trump as he spread baseless claims of mass voter fraud causing his 2020 loss to Biden. They also joined the majority of Republican House members in voting against accepting Pennsylvania’s electoral votes – in a vote that happened just hours after the rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6.

Haverstick uses footage from national media outlets to show that day’s violence, as she was not in Washington herself. Still, she gathered film from Lancaster County that she said reflects the broader sentiment of some who denied the election results were legitimate, such as a “Trump Won” banner hanging on the wall of a roadside barn.

Ultimately, while the need to preserve democracy is a core theme of her film, Haverstick said the documentary is more about the candidates she followed over the past four years.

“We’re trying to focus on an individual character or person who has a quest in their life,” Haverstick said. “They’re trying to achieve something and I’m following them and their throughline as to what they’re trying to achieve.”