The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is among the most important documentary film festivals in North America. Each year, the RIDM presents more than 150 Canadian and international documentaries and offers a documentary forum uniquely québécois. This year, one of the films to be screened between November 17 and 27 is an original, jubilant and unrestrained documentary on the nuns of the Abbey of Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes, in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac. It will be shown at the Cineplex Odeon in Montreal’s Quartier Latin on November 22, 2022, at 9:00 p.m. in cinema 10, and on November 25, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. in cinema 12. A short video can be found online at https://vimeo.com/lessandro/trailer, giving a good idea of the subject matter of the film which, following the Montreal screenings, may travel across the country and beyond. 

Some 12 years ago, the Brazilian-Canadian film director Lessandro Sócrates made a documentary called “L’iconographe,” (The icon-maker) which brought him into contact with the iconographer nuns of the Abbey of Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes. That marked the beginning of a friendship that has now borne fruit in the form of the film “De l’autre côté.”  The cloistered nuns appear to lead a life of austerity, but Lessandro's film introduces us to these endearing women endowed with an extraordinary joie de vivre. 

The film's promotional article reads: "Director Lessandro Sócrates has built up a relationship of trust with the community of women religious at the Abbey of Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes. His documentary explores the nuns’ cloistered existence, using shots of the fence separating them from the altar sanctuary or the gate that separates them from visitors. But it provides a very different perspective on these women in their daily lives and their interpersonal relations. The focus is on the joy they have in life, their love of art and music and how they cherish beauty and detail. This is all expressed in the calming harmony of their voices in the choir during their Gregorian liturgical celebrations which serve as an exquisite musical setting to this beautifully sensitive film."

Could this be a year of media exposure for the nuns? In August, they appeared on the big screen to sing “Veni Creator” in a large-scale production designed by composer Jacques Béland and mounted at Saint Joseph's Oratory, the shrine of Notre-Dame du Cap and the basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. The title of the production was “La beauté sauvera le monde” – “Beauty will save the world.” Singing out of sight we can shout from the rooftops...