The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God is a very fine 1984 documentary by Ken Burns about this sect founded by Ann Lee, an illiterate English factory worker. The Shakers, an offshoot of the Quakers, settled in America during the late 18th century. They adopted a simple and celibate lifestyle where work was consecrated as a gift to God.
Using historic photographs, excerpts from diaries and letters, reactions from outsiders, and vignettes from the lives of three surviving Shaker women, Burns reveals their inventiveness (the clothespin and the circular saw), their well-crafted furniture, and their beautifully designed meeting houses and barns.