This Random Nun Clip is from our In Good Faith podcast with "Band of Sisters" filmmaker Mary Fishman. Hear the full podcast at IGF022.
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Band of Sisters is Mary Fishman’s filmmaking debut. Mary grew up in Chicago, where attended Catholic elementary and high schools. She attended the Univ of Notre Dame, and then worked as an architect in Chicago, in southern California, and in Strasbourg, France. While in California, she earned a master's degree from UCLA in urban planning. After returning to Chicago, she specialized in historic preservation and zoning for the City of Chicago’s Dept. of Planning and Development. She left her job with the city to help care for her mother and began work on Band of Sisters in 2004. Making films is a dream come true for Mary, joining her love of movies with her desire to work for social justice.
SISTER MAXINE: Our guest today is filmmaker Mary Fishman, whose recent documentary “Band of Sisters” has been winning awards across the country.
SISTER JULIE: So nuns have existed for hundreds of years. What was it about this post-Vatican II era that made you want to focus on that to begin telling the story of sisters?
MARY: I think that I was really drawn to the story of sisters in this country for a number of reasons. Backing up a little, one was their 300-year history that I did read a lot about. I was just so amazed and in awe of all that the sisters had done in this country. The amazing institutions that they built, some of the exciting personal stories about sisters in the west, nursing in the Civil War and all those great, great things. I think,, for me the idea of focusing on sisters after Vatican II, and social justice, came because that was really where my passion was in terms of why I want to make films. I really am interested in making films that can change the way people think and the things that they believe. I am also wanting to do something that can help better the world. I was thinking about well, why am I interested in social justice? I know that a lot of it came from my mother who, all her life, loved Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal. Her father was a union worker, so my mother was always talking about unions. Just so much in favor of poor people getting a break and getting equal footing and a chance to accomplish things in life. I think that those things drew me to focusing on sisters that work for social justice, and that meant working the film around Vatican II and what happened after that.
To hear full episodes of A Nun’s Life podcasts, visit the podcast page at anunslife.org/podcasts.
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.
