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 | WOMEN OF FAITH
| NY Premiere |
| Cast: | Sr. Mary Francis Hone, O.S.C.,
Sr. Teresa Dericks, O.S.C.,
Sr. Pat Murray, M.M.,
Sr. Dolores Geier, M.M.,
Sr. Loretta Harriman, M.M.,
Rev. Marie David,
Donna Heitzman | | Crew: | Producer: Rebecca M. Alvin -
Production Company: Belly Girl Films, Inc. -
Camera: Dave Alvin, Kristin Alexander -
Sound Recordist: Mark van Bork -
Editor: Rebecca M. Alvin -
Sound Editor: Mark van Bork | | Email: | bellygirlfilms comcast.net | | Web: | www.bellygirl.com |
synopsis
Women of Faith is a film about what it means to be Catholic, how rebellion can and does
happen within the Church as well as outside of it, the nature of faith and doubt, and how women
in the Church reconcile conflicting religious, political, and personal beliefs.
biography
Rebecca M. Alvin is an independent American filmmaker, teacher, and writer. She attended
Emerson College (B.S., Film), Berklee College of Music (Film Scoring), and the New School for
Social Research (M.A., Media Studies). Her first feature-length documentary, Our Bodies, Our
Minds, about women in the sex industry, premiered at the Women in the Director’s Chair
International Film Festival in 2001. It is currently distributed by The Cinema Guild. She was
born and raised in New York City, but now lives with her husband and son on Cape Cod, in
Massachusetts. Women of Faith is her third documentary.
Director's IMDb Page
filmmaker's note
I’ve always been interested in people who make what I perceive as extreme choices. I
began this project thinking about my great-aunt Myrtle who had been a nun for a number of
years and then left her order (Sisters of Charity) to pursue a secular life. She died young and I
didn’t know her very well, but what I remember of her doesn’t fit with the stereotypical image of
a Catholic nun. She was outspoken, funny, she taught me to play cards, and she seemed to be
quite open-minded. I always wondered why she ever became a nun and why she ultimately left.
This was the impetus for Women of Faith, but as I worked on the film things changed. I became
aware of women who were profoundly Catholic in terms of their beliefs and their culture, but
who rejected certain Church teachings as sexist, out of date, and out of touch.
It was very important for me to include a wide variety of views, and yet I wanted to
focus in on women in the Catholic Church exclusively. The women in this film range from very
conservative contemplative nuns to an ex-Catholic former nun who left the order upon
recognizing her homosexuality. And yet, all seven women share a central quality - faith. This
ability to believe in something ethereal and mysterious, to have a certainty that there is something
else we can actually connect with, despite the lack of tangible evidence became even more
compelling to me over the six and a half years of production.
related links
Trailer
Film's IMDb page
Search it on Google
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