Inquiring Nuns
Inquiring Nuns is a 1968 Kartemquin Films production directed by Gordon Quinn and Gerald Temaner. The documentary film features Sisters Marie Arne and Mary Campion, two young Catholic nuns who visit a variety of Chicago locales to ask people the question, "Are you happy?"[1] They meet a variety of individuals ranging from hippie musicians to intellectuals, whose responses are everything from the mundane to the spiritual. The film was directly influenced by Jean Rouch's Chronique d'un été,[2] which Quinn and Temaner had watched at Doc Films while they were undergraduates at the University of Chicago. The film was shot on Kartemquin's “Camera #1”, a custom-modified crystal sync Auricon with a used manual zoom lens Quinn purchased from Albert Maysles, and to which he added a World War II gunner handle bought from a pawn shop as an extra grip for steadiness. [3]
Inquiring Nuns | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gerald Temaner Gordon Quinn |
Starring | Sister Marie Arné Sister Mary Campion |
Music by | Philip Glass |
Cinematography | Gordon Quinn |
Edited by | Gordon Quinn |
Distributed by | Kartemquin Films |
Release date | 1968 |
Running time | 66 min. |
Country | USA |
Language | English |
Quinn and Temaner's fourth collaboration was produced for about $16,000 ($110,005 US in 2016) for Chicago's Catholic Adult Education Center which never suggested any changes or requested a single edit. Both Sisters Marie Arne ( now named Kathleen Westling ) and Mary Campion ( now named Catherine Rock ) [4] served at the St. Denis Parish in Chicago's Southwest Side at the time of the filming. They subsequently left the sisterhood within a few years after the film's release, the former eventually becoming a family counselor in the Chicago suburbs and the latter a school superintendent in Florida. One of the random people they encountered in the film was Stepin Fetchit who showed a few of his publicity shots and stated that he was happy.[3]
An Official Selection of the 1968 Chicago International Film Festival, Inquiring Nuns features music by the then relatively unknown composer Philip Glass (Truman Show, The Fog of War) who was paid $100 ($688 US in 2016) for earning his first film credit.[3][5]
Entertainment Weekly graded Inquiring Nuns an 'A' and applauded the film's "reaffirmation of the virtue of conventional wisdom".[6]
In 2018, Kartemquin received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation for a new restoration of the original 16mm print, and collaborated with Argot Pitcures on a 50th Anniversary release of the film in US theaters.
See also
References
- Gronvall, Andrea. "Inquiring Nuns" (synopsis), Chicago Reader.
- Inquiring Nuns :: Kartemquin Films
- Borrelli, Christopher. "A loaded question for you: Are you happy?" Chicago Tribune, Friday, March 1, 2013.
- Phillips, Michael. "Two nuns, one microphone and a question for Chicago: 'Are you happy?'" Chicago Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018.
- "Inquiring Nuns" (1968). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 Jan. 2011.
- Video Review Catchpole, Terry. "Inquiring Nuns". Entertainment Weekly. 21 May 1993. Retrieved 26 Jan. 2011.
External links
- Inquiring Nuns on IMDb
- Kartemquin Films
- Inquiring Nuns Official Site
- Nuns, Stepin Fetchit & Philip Glass (TCM Movie Morlocks on Inquiring Nuns)