The Nuns Not On The Bus

[Byzantine]

Umm... The Nashville way of life still seems more attractive. Not that I'm competent to make that statement, but still.

[Eowyn]

[quote name='beatitude' timestamp='1351595366' post='2500253']

Nice piece. The thing I notice there is that the non-Catholic filmmaker, Vicky Mitchell, spent a long time researching the documentary and worked very patiently to gain the trust and acceptance of the communities she wanted to feature. I don't think a non-Catholic can write an article or make a film on the religious life that rings true unless they absorb themselves in the life for a while. It's just not enough to go to two convents and have a cup of tea with the nuns, as the 'Nuns Not on the Bus' journalist did. I could tell that he was trying so hard to be even-handed with both communities and that he respected both of them, but it was evident that there were things he did not understand, especially about the Dominicans but about the Sisters of St Joseph as well. He seems more comfortable with the St Joseph sisters because their life is perhaps more recognisable to him - and yet they too have vows that set them apart. Obedience, for example - could a sister really just read absolutely anything she wanted? He didn't ask. He just assumed.
[/quote]


Michael Whyte did a fabulous job of filming the Notting Hill Carmelites (documentary is called No Greater Love.) I think it's like you said - he spent enough time with them to really understand what he was filming.

Register has a good article on the movie
[url="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/notting_hills_nuns/"]http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/notting_hills_nuns/[/url]

It's a beautiful film. I liked it better than Into the Great Silence, maybe cuz I'm partial to Carmel. The interviews in the special features part are amesome.

[EmilyAnn]

[quote name='beatitude' timestamp='1351595366' post='2500253']
Nice piece. The thing I notice there is that the non-Catholic filmmaker, Vicky Mitchell, spent a long time researching the documentary and worked very patiently to gain the trust and acceptance of the communities she wanted to feature. I don't think a non-Catholic can write an article or make a film on the religious life that rings true unless they absorb themselves in the life for a while. It's just not enough to go to two convents and have a cup of tea with the nuns, as the 'Nuns Not on the Bus' journalist did. I could tell that he was trying so hard to be even-handed with both communities and that he respected both of them, but it was evident that there were things he did not understand, especially about the Dominicans but about the Sisters of St Joseph as well. He seems more comfortable with the St Joseph sisters because their life is perhaps more recognisable to him - and yet they too have vows that set them apart. Obedience, for example - could a sister really just read absolutely anything she wanted? He didn't ask. He just assumed.
[/quote]

I don't know if you ever saw that documentary but I thought it was very excellent. In this article the author has clearly gone in with a pre-conceived idea of what they think of the communities and made their writing and their experience fit into that. In the documentary you had much more of a sense that the filmmaker was just following them and letting them guide it.

From the article you can see why many religious communities are reluctant to be featured in media, because so many are so biased. You can tell reading it that the author has a blatant preference for one community over the other just from the way the article is written. There is no attempt to be unbiased - the Nashville sisters come across and controlled and repressed and unconnected to the world, whereas the Sisters of St Joseph come across as "free" and more useful to the world. Which is so untrue.

[Kateri89]

I went on retreat with the Nashville Dominicans in March of this year and although I have no other religious communities to compare them to, I found them to be very happy, joyful women of all ages. They were orthodox, but orthodox doesn't equal repressed. I've met Sisters who don't wear a habit and while it would be wrong to stereotype these Sisters, I've just found that they don't appear to be quite as passionate about the faith as their more conservative counterparts. There is something to be said for the fact that young women living in this liberal culture are more drawn to the structured, conservative convents that offer less "freedom" as the world sees it. They are finding true freedom in abandoning the desires of the world and uniting their lives solely to Christ. It's a beautiful reality.

**End rant**