The Amish & Us

Tourist industry has an impact on an Amish community in Pennsylvania.

Series
APT Presentation
Premiere Date
July 31, 1998
Length
60 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1998 National Educational Media Network-Gold Apple
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1998 Pennsylvania Broadcasters Association-"Excellence in Broadcasting" Award
    • Producer

    Dirk Eitzen

    Dirk Eitzen is an award-winning documentary producer and an assistant professor of film Studies at Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His scholarly work has appeared in Velvet Light Trap, Iris, Post Script, and elsewhere, and he has recently completed a Ph.D. dissertation, at the University of Iowa, on the rhetoric and reception of… Show more historical documentaries. Show less

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    The Film

    Four and a half million tourists visit Lancaster County, Pennsylvania each year. The cash they spend on Amish-made products is a boon to Amish families who cannot make ends meet by farming alone. At the same time, tourist dollars and constant contact with outsiders threaten to erode the traditional values at the foundation of the Amish way of life. This engaging and witty documentary examines the impact the tourism industry and the loss of farmland are having on the Amish community.

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