DVD/VHS Available: PBS Home Video & Amazon

Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change

a one-hour documentary 
produced by

Hartfilms

and

Alabama Public Television

supported by

The Independent Television Service
of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting


photo: AP Wide World
The year was 1965; the place, Selma, Alabama.   For decades, local laws had all but prevented Blacks from voting.  And those who did venture to protest often faced harassment--even death.  Black Selmians, supported by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., decided to march to the state capital of Montgomery to draw attention to their plight.  On a Sunday in early spring, dozens of peaceful protesters on their way out of the city were brutally beaten back by state troopers and the sheriff's posse on horseback.  The violence of "Bloody Sunday" stunned Americans, focusing nationwide attention on civil rights.  

Public Screenings

Chicago, IL

BLACK HARVEST FILM FESTIVAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2007
Gene Siskel Film Center

Chicago nuns who marched in Selma for Q&A.

Kansas City, MO

CROSSCUT--Women Making Movies

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2007
Tivoli Cinemas

The director and associate producer Bill Hart for Q&A.

Selma, AL

Presented by the City of Selma & the Bridge Crossing Jubilee 

THURSDAY, MARCH 01, 2007
The Performing Arts Center

The director and executive producer Celia Carey in person.

Sarasota, FL

Presented by New College 

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2007
The Sainer Auditorium

The director and Sister Roberta Schmidt in person!  For a full coverage, please see

Rochester, NY

Premier presented by WXXI-TV Channel 21 

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2007
The Dryden Theater - George Eastman House

The director and the Sisters of Saint Joseph in person!

Atlanta, GA

2007 Winter/Spring DREAM Film Series

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2007 
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site Screening Room
A group of American nuns from St. Louis were among the first to protest the violence.  At a time when many church leaders were reluctant to address the treatment of Blacks in the South, these courageous women defied authority--and a long history of simply praying for causes--to take their message to the streets of Selma.  
March 1, 2007 (Selma): l to r. Celia Carey, Jayasri Hart, Etta Perkins, Bridget Mills.

The Missouri sisters were welcomed by the Black residents.  This was due in large part to the decades of bridge-building by sisters from Rochester, New York who had met the education and health care needs of the poor Blacks of Selma.  The Archbishop of Mobile-Birmingham had prohibited them from joining the marches, so they fed, housed, and cared for waves of civil rights activists from elsewhere.

This is a story of "aggiornamento," a word Pope John XXIII used to describe the "updating" of societies resistant to change.  More importantly, it is the story of a few women who took it upon themselves to become the agents of that change.   
What did they change?  How were they themselves changed by the experience? Was it all for the better?  Now in their 60's and 70's, the women reassess their roles in the Civil Rights Movement.
Preview Screening

Dayton, OH - NOVEMBER 15, 2006

For a full coverage, please go to


photo: John Feister, courtesy St. Anthony Messenger
Sisters of Selma screened to a full house as part of the the Father Joseph M Davis Black History Month Celebration at the University of Dayton.  It was followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker Jayasri Hart and Sister Antona Ebo who was among the first to march in Selma.  Now 80, Sister Ebo cited a list of current injustices: the loss of civil liberties, the erosion of affirmative action and the culture of violence.  "I don't have many more days," she said, "I don't have time to be resting."
"I enjoyed the comments of the sisters as they watched themselves marching," said Asst Prof. of Religious Studies Cecilia Moore after the screening. "They were a very visible symbol of faith.  That's why they were put on the front line."
For Asst. Prof. Anthony Smith, the most important contribution of Sisters of Selma was placing civil disobedience in a situation young people in the audience could relate to.  "It is difficult to teach the ideas that inspire a movement if the students don't have access to the context."  

Additional Funding
Catholic Communications Campaign,  The Louisville Institute,
 Alabama Humanities Foundation

Fiscal Sponsors
National Voting Rights Museum, Selma;  Film/Video Arts, New York

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