“Chosen embodies the power
of the cinematic medium.
It transcends physical and cultural boundaries
in order to bring together worlds apart. ...
[One] can visit this world
through the beautiful trust
Reese has found with the nuns.”
[ 2.5-minute trailer: bit.ly/ChosenthefilmTrailer ]
where to WATCH
now Streaming on Alexander Street Press (Proquest)
DVD for personal, home use
DVD of CHOSEN
$20.00
107 minutes
Region 0 (can be played worldwide)
Closed-Captioning
Set within a monastery in Rockford, Illinois, Chosen forms a portrait, through self-scrutinizing video recordings, of a former blogger and painter confronting what she believes is her calling: Becoming a cloistered contemplative nun in one of the strictest religious orders. Chosen is a coming of age story about “Heather” — the newest member of the 800-year-old religious order — tracing her interior journey as she becomes “Sister Amata”. This collaborative film grants viewers a unique encounter with an otherwise remote world.
This DVD is for personal, home use.
If you are placing an order on behalf of an institution, you should purchase the $200 institutional DVD, which comes with a license for Public Performance Rights. The PPR DVD allows screenings to a non-paying audience.
If you want to schedule a screening and/or talk with Director Abbie Reese, please email info@chosenthefilm.com.
educational DVD // libraries
DVD of CHOSEN with a PPR license
$100.00
107 minutes
Region 0 (can be played worldwide)
Closed-Captioning
Set within a monastery in Rockford, Illinois, Chosen forms a portrait, through self-scrutinizing video recordings, of a former blogger and painter confronting what she believes is her calling: Becoming a cloistered contemplative nun in one of the strictest religious orders. Chosen is a coming of age story about “Heather” — the newest member of the 800-year-old religious order — tracing her interior journey as she becomes “Sister Amata”. This collaborative film grants viewers a unique encounter with an otherwise remote world.
This DVD is for institutions. It comes with a license for Public Performance Rights and is available exclusively to schools, universities, libraries, parishes, and other institutions such as Newman Centers and the Knights of Columbus. Purchase of this DVD grants that institution the right to screen the film to non-paying audiences. (The institution cannot charge an admission fee.) PPR rights are valid for the life of the DVD.
If you want to schedule a screening and/or talk with Director Abbie Reese, please email info@chosenthefilm.com.
“Star” rating — THE highest recommendation — given to chosen by library journal
Oct. 15, 2018 review:
★"Chosen: Custody of the Eyes. 107 min. Abbie Reese, Migrant Artist Prods., www.chosenthefilm.com. 2018. DVD UPC 888295694667. $250. Public performance; home use $25. RELIGION
"Independent writer and filmmaker Reese offers in video a story similar to one she told in her oral history of cloistered nuns (Dedicated to God) and much to the same effect, sensitively entering into the world of the cloistered convent. She enlists the active collaboration of a blogger who joined the Poor Clares and, with the novice mistress, filmed much of the life behind the walls. Viewers see the environment from the perspective of the young nun as she grows in her knowledge of the community and of herself, musing on the meaning of it all. Sometimes the camera is simply attached to her as she goes about her daily tasks. Other times, there are more purposeful shots. Such an intimate portrait would rarely be allowed in a community that cherishes anonymity, but Reese had the confidence of the nuns to such an extent that viewers are allowed full access, including the playfulness, to a group of very dedicated but secluded nuns.
"VERDICT: A rare, intimate look into a life normally hidden and of a young woman who is entering into that future.—Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ"
(This) window into the world of contemplatives ...
is a one-of-a-kind film
filling a void previously filled by Hollywood
or perceived as so mysterious that stereotypes fill by default.
Carol Coburn, PhD and Professor of Religious Studies
and Women's and Gender Studies at Avila University
Film showcase
Chosen was selected for the Los Angeles
Religious Education Congress Film Showcase
at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Director Abbie Reese was part of the
Filmmakers’ Panel moderated by Sr. Rose Pacatte, F.S.P.
(Also in the Film Showcase was Hesburgh.)
AWARDED
•) BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM BY SYDNEY WORLD FILM FESTIVAL
•) THIRD PLACE FEATURE FILM by MIRABILE DICTU – INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC FILM ASSOCIATION FESTIVAL in warsaw
•) AMBITIOUS FEATURE BY FESTIVAL ANGAELICA
AN OFFICIAL SELECTION at film festivals
ON FOUR CONTINENTS
• RIGA PASAULES FILM FESTIVAL, LATVIA (EUROPEAN PREMIERE, WORLD PREMIERE)
• THE 45TH EDITION OF ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM + VIDEO FESTIVAL (USA PREMIERE)
• GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL (UK PREMIERE)
• SYDNEY WORLD FILM FESTIVAL (AUSTRALIA PREMIERE)
• LANUS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, ARGENTINA (SOUTH AMERICA PREMIERE)
• THE 31ST ANNUAL PÄRNU INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY AND ANTHROPOLOGY FILM FESTIVAL, ESTONIA
• THE 32ND INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC FILM AND MULTIMEDIA FESTIVAL, KSF NIEPOKALANA 2017, POLAND
• FESTIVAL ANGAELICA, FORMERLY THE COLUMBIA GORGE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, BIG BEAR LAKE, CALIFORNIA
• MEXICO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THEATRICAL SCREENINGS
IRELAND
Irish Film Institute – Temple Bar, Dublin
Roger Childs, RTÉ Editor of Religious Programmes, in conversation with Abbie Reese
NORTHERN IRELAND
Strand Arts Centre, Belfast
U.K.
Queen's University Belfast
Dangerous Oral Histories, a joint conference of the Oral History Society and Oral History Network of Ireland
CHICAGO
Gene Siskel Film Center
Filmmaker Anahita Ghazvinizadeh and UChicago Magazine editor Laura Demanski in conversation with Abbie Reese
Doc Films | Max Palevsky Cinema
Sponsored by The University of Chicago Divinity School Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion,
Professor and Medievalist Willemiena Otten in conversation with Abbie Reese