{"id":7517,"date":"2022-11-30T13:06:38","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T18:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/news\/news-2\/nuns-deux-montagnes-appear-film-festival\/"},"modified":"2022-11-30T13:06:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T18:06:38","slug":"nuns-deux-montagnes-appear-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/news\/news-2\/nuns-deux-montagnes-appear-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nuns of Deux-Montagnes Appear in a Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

The documentary film De l’autre c\u00f4t\u00e9 premiered on November 22 during the RIDM film festival in Montreal before an audience of 100 cinema-goers. With his documentary, director Lessandro S\u00f3crates succeeds in bringing the viewer along to experience the inner world of the nuns of the Abbey of Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes.<\/p>\n\n

“We are delighted with the result. Lessandro has captured the meaning of our life. He really did discover it; in fact, he touched it.\u201d
\nSister Martine is seated in front of the food counters at the Quartier Latin Cin\u00e9plex Odeon as she relishes this time outside the walls of her abbey.
\nWith her sits Sister Louise, who is very eager to try the popcorn with salt and butter. “Now we\u2019re on the other side, after all,\u201d she says, alluding to the film\u2019s French title: De l\u2019autre c\u00f4t\u00e9.  <\/p>\n\n

The cinema is quite busy this late evening. Dressed in their black and white habits, the nuns attract the glances of those hurrying by to make their movie on time. It is also very noisy, so we must huddle together in order to hear one another. Our group forms a bubble, impervious to the hustle and bustle around us. Little by little, a sense of intimacy envelops us.
\nSister Martine explains to me that the nuns are very cautious about accepting an offer from a journalist or a filmmaker. “We are very careful. Normally, the only men who come into the monastery are the workers. We are even warier of the media, because they could just as easily make a mockery of us.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n\n

The apprenticeship<\/strong>
\nConsequently, they took their time getting to know director Lessandro S\u00f3crates. Due to technical and financial issues, the making of the film was drawn out over nine years. It was completed in 2021.
\nBefore proposing the idea of making this documentary to them, he had met the nuns while making a film about a Russian iconographer who lives in Montreal.
\n“When he began his documentary, he knew nothing about us,” recalls Sister Martine.
\nAlthough the sisters gave the director complete freedom, they nevertheless guided him in becoming acquainted with monastic life. \u201cI was more or less the one who set the schedule,\u201c she continues. \u201cI would say to him: ‘Today we can do such and such.’ For example, Mondays we do laundry, so he would come and see us there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

“He often came to the sacristy. He wanted to know how I arranged the ornaments, how I prepared the monstrance, how I lit the candles. He found that very interesting!” remembers sacristan Sister Louise.
\nThe residents of the monastery were not disturbed by the camera. “When he came to Mass, he would position himself in the back. We would not even be even aware he was there. He would take pictures and film as he wished,” Sister Martine tells me.
\nSuddenly, Lessandro S\u00f3crates appears at our table. The two nuns jump up to greet him. There follow long hugs and exclamations of joy. I hear Lessandro say several times, “It\u2019s been so long!\u201d
\nRight away, he tells about his first encounters with the nuns and the monastery. “I went there several times. I attended the services. I spoke with Sister Martine and Sister Louise. I went to the guesthouse, to the garden. During my first visit for the documentary on the Russian iconographer, I only went to see the icon workshop. It wasn\u2019t until February 2014 that I started filming with my camera. We got to know each other.”<\/p>\n\n

The joy<\/strong>
\nThat closeness can be felt throughout the film, and the absence of interviews or voice-overs even intensifies the feeling.
\nFor Lessandro, this was a choice that went without saying. “The directors who make this kind of film are the ones I like the most. Also, I couldn’t do narration. I couldn’t claim to be able to write or say anything that would explain their lives, because I’m not a specialist in monastic life. I wanted to simply observe them. And when the nuns are talking with one another, there is still speech. They laugh, as well…”<\/p>\n\n

Indeed, joy is everywhere in the documentary. According to Sister Martine, its presence is perfectly normal. “Joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Wherever God is, there is joy. He is all love and all joy. He wants us to be happy. When we are with Him, we can’t help being joyful. The joy just happens all by itself!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

One of the final scenes in the film shows how contagious this joy is. After he films the sisters tobogganing down a hill, they encourage the director to come away from the camera and try it himself. He walks up, leaving the camera running, and has his very first toboggan ride, to the nuns\u2019 cries of delight and encouragement and the amusement of the viewer.<\/p>\n\n

Some of the nuns who appear in the documentary have since died. One of them, Sister C\u00e9cile, talks on screen to the director as he is filming her with her walker. “She was 98 years old at the time. She died at the age of 102,” Lessandro says.
\nSister Martine points out that the film\u2019s premiere last Tuesday was also the liturgical feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians. “I’m sure it’s a little wink from Sister Cecile!”<\/p>\n\n

When we asked if the sisters had any regrets about letting Lessandro make his documentary, Sister Louise, who will soon be celebrating 59 years of religious life, exclaims without a moment\u2019s hesitation, “Oh no!\u201d which elicits a laugh all round.
\nThe documentary De l’autre c\u00f4t\u00e9 was shown again on Friday, November 25, at 6:00 p.m. at the Quartier Latin Cin\u00e9plex Od\u00e9on.  <\/p>\n\n

Yves Casgrain<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source The documentary film De l’autre c\u00f4t\u00e9 premiered on November 22 during the RIDM film festival in Montreal before an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nouvelle"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}