Directed by Victoria Westover • Documentary • 2024 • 84 minutes
Final Vows chronicles the life of a cloistered order of nuns at Santa Rita Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in the high desert of Arizona. The nuns, who take a vow that binds them to remain in the community they entered for life, candidly share their joys and struggles. While each woman's journey is unique, they all felt a call and chose to join this community of prayer and work.
The nuns rise at 4am for their first prayers of the day and support themselves through the production and sale of altar bread. The Abbey faces challenges as the nuns are aging and few young women are choosing a monastic life. The Abbess, a life-sustaining presence for this striving community, may be required to step down soon when she turns 75 years old.
Made from small moments of daily life, the film serves as a meditation on aging and caring for others and asks viewers to consider if this lifestyle offers any wisdom for our society.
Up Next in Beyond Belief
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The Campaign
Directed by Christie Herring • Documentary • 2013 • 56 minutes
What inspires everyday people to opt in for something larger than themselves? THE CAMPAIGN follows California's historic No-on-8 campaign to defend same-sex marriage through behind the scenes footage, interwoven with the national his...
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A Witch Story
Directed by Yolanda Pividal Garcia • Documentary • 2022 • 73 minutes
Young writer Alice was a teenager when she discovered something that changed her life forever: she was a descendant of Martha Allen Carrier, a woman hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. At 24, after scou...
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Citizen George
Directed by Glenn Holsten • Documentary • 2024 • 99 minutes
Citizen George presents the life and work of Philadelphia-based Quaker activist George Lakey, a non-violent revolutionary who has worked his entire life for justice and peace, guided by his ideal of societal transformation.
Called "a ...
