Filming the Anabaptist Origins Project
At 9:40 am on June 7, 2025, Geryll, Tristan, and I (Alex) embarked on a journey consisting of one drive and two plane rides that would bring us to Zurich, Switzerland. Months of planning had gone into this moment, and the next three weeks would be full, with our team of eleven walking, driving, and filming all over Europe, visiting seven different countries and staying at fifteen different hotels or Airbnbs. What we were seeking to accomplish was a ten-part documentary series on the first hundred years of Anabaptism. Each episode is hoped to be around forty-five minutes to an hour long and will focus on a specific aspect of those early years.
On the plane about to begin our journey.
The organization running the project is Anabaptist Perspectives. Geryll was directing the project and put significant work into the planning and previsualization of the trip and executing the vision once we were in Europe. We had two historians, Dean Taylor and Stephen Russel, as well as Reagen Shrock to ask questions and guide the discussion. The men behind the cameras were Austin Shrock, Carl Yoder, Shaun Forry, Tristan Zehr, and myself. Shaun did the drone work with Carl assisting him on the trip. Tania Taylor, Dean’s wife, and Monica Yoder, Carl’s wife, came along to do laundry, prepare lunch, and keep our spirits up.
Our group standing by where Felix Manz was drowned.
After about a week, we got into a rhythm of getting up, eating breakfast, filming, driving, or both, until lunch. Then, after lunch, we would do more driving and filming. At about five, we would check into a new hotel, eat supper, and go to sleep. Some days we did not travel far, but some days we drove for up to six hours and passed through up to three different countries. Our historians bravely worked on scripts every spare minute they had, and most car rides and evenings were spent in such a fashion.
Stephen Russel hard at work on scripts
We visited Switzerland, where we had the pleasure of seeing a lot of old documents at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. While we were in Switzerland, we went to the Schleitheim museum, where we saw the original Schleitheim Confession. We then went to Austria, where we saw the beautiful Alps in Innsbruck and explored old castles in Rattenberg and Falkenstein. We then went to Germany, where we filmed in the stunning Black Forest. We crossed the border to the Czech Republic, where we shot for almost an entire day in beautiful Mikulov. We split into two groups for a bit, and part of the team went to Passau while the other group went ahead to Münster. We connected again to go to the idyllic city of Strasbourg, France, before going further north to Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
Carl and Shaun look the part with their cameras in Vienna.
We filmed most of the content with the historians and Reagen in a line with the cameramen spread out in front. When the conversation got more in-depth, they sat down at a cafe to enjoy coffee and soda for the longer filming sessions. We had a variety of dynamic walking shots as well, and nearly all of Reagen's intros and outros were filmed in that way.
Filming in Augsburg, France.
It was a trip none of us will forget, and the rich history of Europe is far deeper than anything in the US. We were all changed by the amazing and stretching experience, and we cannot wait to see the final result! -Alex S. Zehr
The on-screen talent standing in front of a statue of Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich Switzerland.
