[BAND OF SISTERS
screens Friday July 12th at 6:30 pm and Saturday July 13th at 1:30 pm
at the Cleveland Museum of Art Gartner Auditorium.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
If the movies are to be believed,
Catholic nuns essentially come in three varieties: mean school
teachers, genial comic relief foils for Whoopi Goldberg, and sinful
sex maniacs in seventies “nunsploitation” films. Whichever sort
of nun film you happen to be watching, the sisters will all, of
course, wear the traditional nun's habit. Any resemblance to persons
living or dead is purely coincidental, and extremely unlikely.
To get a better idea of what at least
some nuns are like, avail yourself of the opportunity to see BAND
OF SISTERS, a documentary film
from director Mary Fishman that sheds light on a decidedly more
liberal side of the Catholic Church than I imagine most viewers would
be used to seeing. And outside of a few archival photos and paintings
from the distand, pre-Vatican II past, there's nary a wimple in
sight.
BAND
details how the once cloistered sisterhoods heeded Vatican II's call
for renewal and engagement with the outside world, dropping their
classic costumes like a bad “habit” (sorry, couldn't resist) and
transforming themselves into social activists. As one interview
subject explains, nuns have always been concerned with
compassion and social justice. For many years that meant that
convents focused on education and nursing, but in the modern world issues of race and gender equality, the Vietnam
War, unions and workplace justice, and environmentalism came to the fore for many nuns in America. It's not entirely surprising that the
more liberal actions of these sisters didn't always sit well with the
more conservative Vatican hierarchy, especially when some nuns began
to protest gender inequality within the Church.
I don't know how representative the BAND OF SISTERS is of nuns overall, or if it simply focused on the most liberal of the various orders. Either way, no doubt some Catholics will enthusiastically support what the women profiled here are doing, others not so much. For those non-Catholic and non-religious people like myself, though, BAND OF SISTERS serves as an important reminder that religion doesn't just inspire small minded people to fight to deny certain segments of society their rights and dignity in the name of God. It can also inspire good hearted people to do positive and worthwhile things that cast a far better light on a belief system founded on notions of love and compassion. 3 out of 4 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We approve all legitimate comments. However, comments that include links to irrelevant commercial websites and/or websites dealing with illegal or inappropriate content will be marked as spam.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.