SCREENING on Sunday at Strand Arts Centre in Belfast, award-winning US documentary Chosen (Custody of the Eyes) finds a young woman recording herself as she becomes a cloistered Poor Clare nun at Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, near Chicago.
Director Abbie Reese provided 25-year-old Sister Amata with a digital video camera to film herself and her fellow nuns for the film.
Poor Clare Colettine nuns make vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and enclosure. They seek anonymity and observe silence – yet in 2005, Reese was granted rare access to begin conducting oral history interviews, take photographs and record video footage within the cloistered monastery.
After meeting a young woman considering a calling to the religious life, the director interviewed 'Heather' (who selected this alias to reflect the Poor Clare Colettine pursuit of anonymity) for the next six years until she joined the monastery to become Sister Amata in 2011.
Equipped with a video camera, 'Heather'/Sister Amata then documented her journey into this ancient religious order from her own vantage point.
Chosen (Custody of the Eyes) will have its Northern Ireland premiere at The Strand Arts Centre on Sunday at 4pm.
:: Tickets available via Strandartscentre.com
