MT. CARROLL—“With credits, the film is two hours and six minutes. We are now very close to locking this picture!” says Abbie Reese of the film, “Chosen (Custody of the Eyes.)”
While she had hoped to release the film at the end of the Year for Consecrated Life, Feb. 2, “this film has required a different pace,” she said last December.
But, recently Reese showed the nearly-finished cut to a small group of Poor Clare nuns who have been most involved in this project.
“I am delighted that this glimpse into the interior life of a young woman becoming a Poor Clare is nearly complete,” she says. “It’s been an incredible process, working to realize this vision in collaboration with the Poor Clares.
“I’m grateful that they’ve allowed me into their world and that others — through this film — can enter into their sacred space, to experience a monastic pace and the daily rituals and manual labor that are a spiritual practice ... ,” she says.
Once final edits are made, Reese says, “The picture will be locked. ... Then we will begin the process of sweetening sound and submitting the film to festivals.”
After the film is complete, Reese plans additional projects.
One is an ethnographic film “that will focus more broadly on monastic life, including the perspectives of nuns who have been living the cloistered contemplative life for decades,” she says.
She also plans to develop “a digital projection consisting of two videos — one edited by me and one edited by the Poor Clares — shown side-by-side as a visual dialogue.”
She has also collected stories through the Storytelling Trust for an online archive of Rockford area residents and their experiences with the Poor Clares.
“I wouldn’t have been able to come this far without the financial support of those who believe in the merit of sharing the nuns’ lives.
Tax-deductible donations “would still be helpful and very much appreciated to fund the remaining film preparation,” she says.
Info: www.chosenthefilm.com and http://storytellingtrust.org/share-your-story.html