Rebel Hearts dir. by Pedro Kos

Abstract

Reviewed by: Rebel Hearts dir. by Pedro Kos Tim Dulle Jr. Rebel Hearts. Directed by Pedro Kos. USA: Discovery+, 2021. 103 minutes. Is this the first documentary about women religious for which Patti Smith's raucous cover of The Who's "My Generation" makes a perfect addition to the soundtrack? These aren't regular nuns, we're assured, these are cool nuns. Rebel Hearts tells the story of the California-based Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, their evolution as an order through the 1950s and 1960s, and the eventual emergence of the Immaculate Heart Community after most of their membership requested dispensation from their vows as women religious. Throughout this outstanding documentary, time and again, the film's aesthetic choices and visual language establish who is on which side of the conflict, what they're all about, and what's at stake for the future of Catholicism after Vatican II. Through these choices, Rebel Hearts makes excellent use of the documentary medium. Archive junkies among us will be thoroughly delighted with how the film's fresh animations and its flair for timing weave together older film footage and interviews from subsequent decades—improbably, even newspaper headlines, official letters, and church documents come alive. [End Page 50] Viewers will have no difficulty figuring out whose side the filmmakers are on in the clash between the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as led by Cardinal James Francis McIntyre. One effective device the film uses to move between settings and through time is a series of cartoon animations. The IHMs are represented by warm and friendly graphics that announce, in vivid color, that these women represent the spirit of the 1960s, all rounded edges and smoothly flowing imagery. In one vivid scene, the cartoon figures of habited nuns are lined up and mirrored on the screen's bottom half by the figures of women in trendy attire. To signal that these nuns "flipped the script," so to speak, the screen simply spins on its central axis, putting the more modern figures on top. The shady figures of the cartoon archdiocesan chancery, in contrast, are throughout the film rendered almost exclusively in black clothing, their (quite literally) spikey fingers, angular clothing, and menacing demeanors resembling Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas more than anything. My main critique of Rebel Hearts is most visible here: that it often slides into caricature in drawing its battle lines. The film is similarly straightforward about what these groups represent, and here, relying more solidly on historical material, the presentation is less about caricature than establishing a clear contrast which heightens the narrative stakes. In interviews and sound bites, a sort of word cloud emerges around the IHMs: "modern," "dynamic," "critical thinking." They are at one point referred to as "kickass and kind of subversive." The word "trouble" is used multiple times, but in the spirit of the late John Lewis, this means good trouble. In a clip that personifies the sisters' charming poise, Patricia Reif is asked if she has ever been arrested while protesting for social justice. She laughs and says "Yes," laughs again, and smiles, "A lot of times." In contrast, a word cloud for McIntyre's archdiocesan machine would swirl around terms related to business, order, and authority. Anita Caspary, one of the film's undoubted stars, at one point uses the words "subservience" and "conformity." Tellingly, these descriptors are not merely lobbed by detractors. In one interview, legendary archdiocesan archivist Monsignor Francis J. Weber, author of a complimentary two-volume biography of McIntyre, declares that "the one thing people hate is change." He notes that the sisters "drifted away from authority, and then you're really in trouble." The order's most famous member, Corita Kent, contributes much to this visual language. Repeatedly, her acclaimed silkscreen prints appear in the background of interviews and are used to mark transitions. Functioning in something like their natural spiritual habitat, they convey clear messages that let viewers know who they're [End Page 51] dealing with. Pope John XXIII, accompanied by the text "Let the sunshine in;" "Stop the Bombing" in Vietnam; and "Get with the Action...