Throughout history, religious women and nuns in particular, have been allowed certain advantages over other women, while still being oppressed within their vocational pursuits. For a long time, the only ways a woman could escape the structured, powerless life of marriage were by becoming prostitutes or the opposite extreme, women of faith. Nuns were taught to read and write. They were encouraged to pursue music, literature, and art, as well as philosophy and spirituality. But what would make a woman choose this life today? Some communities are even experiencing a rapid increase in applicants, despite all the opportunities open to women today. It seemed strange to me that this would happen, especially given the antiquated, discriminatory position of the Catholic Church with regard to the ordination of women as priests and deacons.
This project intends to look at nuns and portray a collection of lives quite different from the stereotypical goody-two-shoes, ruler-slapping, old-lady, Catholic School teachers we've come to see as nuns. The women I have met in creating this film are fascinating, intelligent women whose unconventional lives lead me to new insights on the issues around women and the Church as well as on the very meaning of life.
Using interviews with nuns, former nuns and other women involved deeply in religious lives, Women of Faith examines the choice to lead a profoundly religious life in the post-feminist era.
Just as I explored sex work and feminism in my 2000 film, Our Bodies, Our Minds, I again try to present a picture of a different kind of feminism, by allowing my subjects to speak for themselves about their lives, their beliefs, and their choices.
Women of Faith is currently entering the post-production stage, with plans for release in April 2006. Interview subjects include several nuns of the Poor Clares order in Jamaica Plain, MA, former nuns in New York and in Provincetown, Mass., a Roman Catholic Womanpriest in Cape Cod, and Maryknoll sisters in Ossining, NY.