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Macky Alston reviews the film Sister Helen
Sister Helen
In this compelling no-frills documentary, a 69-year-old Benedictine nun rules a private home for recovering male addicts in the South Bronx with strict curfews, tough language and a large heart. Many pastoral caregivers will recognize the real challenges of caring for those in extreme need and will find in Sister Helen’s approach to rehabilitation much food for thought.
The Sundance Award-winning documentary captures in cinema verité style the no-nonsense day-to-day environment of Sister Helen’s half-way house, which provides a private room in a structured environment for addicts. Structure is perhaps an understatement. The men in Sister Helen’s residence must obey curfews, undergo frequent urine tests, participate in community service, seek employment and pay rent.
Sister Helen became a Benedictine nun at the age of 56, and shortly afterward founded the John Thomas Travis Center to “do for other people’s sons what I couldn’t do for my own.” By providing shelter for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, Sister Helen seeks self-redemption after the loss of a husband to alcoholism and the loss of two sons to drugs, one to drug-related murder. She herself is a recovering alcoholic.
Sister Helen’s purpose is to help residents transition back into normal life within a half-year time period, by providing shelter, assistance and job references. Her unsentimental approach to the addicts can be hard to watch, but most of her residents respond and, for Sister Helen, “this house is my second chance.”
Macky Alston is the director of Auburn Media,
a division of the Center for Multifaith Education
at Auburn Theological Seminary committed to supporting,
cultivating and promoting powerful, engaging, balanced
and responsible media on religion, spirituality
and ethics. He is a graduate of Union Theological
Seminary and an award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Completed: 2002
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Producers/Directors: Rob Fruchtman and Rebecca Cammisa
Editors: Jonathan Oppenheim, Juliet Weber
Music: Simon Gentry
Directors of Photography: Rebecca Cammisa, Rob Fruchtman
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins
If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at the Hartley Film Foundation’s Web site, www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Masterworks” on the homepage for more information. The cost is $26.95/DVD copy.
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