Sister Helen
by Rebecca Cammisa, Rob Fruchtman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Paul La GrecaDirector: Rebecca Cammisa, Rob Fruchtman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: New Video Group
Movie Reviews of Sister Helen
Movie Review: fine documentary--even if it can be controversial
Summary: 5 Stars
Sister Helen is a superb, insightful documentary partly about Helen Travis, who at 56 became a nun. Two years later, Sister Helen opened a transitional home for men who were addicted to drugs or alcohol. Sister Helen has her personal reasons for trying to help these down and out men: her life had already been very rough. Indeed, Helen Travis had endured more than most of us could ever bear. She lost her husband to alcoholism; one of her sons died of a drug overdose and another son was stabbed seventeen times at the tender age of fifteen.
In order to have empathy for Helen, you need to keep in mind that she came from a tough as nails, rough background. Sister Helen may have been wearing a nun's habit; but yes, she DID keep her own ways. She was very foul-mouthed; and she DID use her power to boss around the men who lived in her transitional home. This is going to cause great controversy because there are some of us who believe that nuns should not swear and refer to urine as some other four letter word which I will not repeat here.
On the other hand, I saw Sister Helen doing a lot of good for the residents of her home. Let's face it: these were people whose lives had been destroyed by their overpowering addictions to drugs and alcohol. This is often precisely the type of person who needs a tough mentor to lead them away from drugs and alcohol and back toward a life of sobriety. I should know: as the son of an alcoholic, drug addicted mother, I will never forget how hard it was just to get my mother to go to a single A.A. meeting--just once. After many years my mother had to eventually hit rock bottom and only then she began a recovery that was never fully completed.
In this film, look for Helen to essentially give tons of tough love to the men in her home in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City. These men have tried so many times and often failed to stay clean of drugs. What was Helen to do? As you will see in this film, Sister Helen possesses an uncanny ability to see through the lies they tell her when in fact they have abused drugs behind her back. She wisely calls for "emergency meetings" when one member may have to be kicked out--for the fifth time.
Upon close examination, however, you'll see the love she does have for these men. She actually gives a fifth chance to the man who suffers from alcoholism; and she actually tells the men in another group meeting that she loves them dearly. She even goes completely off the deep end with her own grief and anger when a false positive drug report comes back that Major, one of her favorite residents, abused a drug. As it turns out, he was taking a prescription drug containing codeine which caused a false positive for opiate use. Sister Helen really should have publicly apologized to the man named Major; but she's human too and I guess she either couldn't muster it or she apologized privately when the cameras weren't rolling.
There are extras that are equally interesting. Look for some extra interviews with several residents of the home; and there is some great commentary for you to choose if you wish.
Overall, not everyone will like this documentary. If you are easily offended by four letter words, you should skip this one. If you can handle or even prefer to see tough love then you will enjoy this film. The last twenty minutes of the film are almost unexpectedly moving; and if you watch this documentary it will make a lasting impression on you.
Summary of Sister Helen
Sister Helen offers a candid look at an unconventional nun. Tough-talking Sister Helen Travis is a recovered alcoholic who reinvented herself at age 56, after the loss of her husband and sons, by joining the Benedictine order in 1986. Two years later, she opened a recovery center for men in the rat-infested South Bronx (literally--the tenants battle several during the course of the film). As Sister Helen explains, "I try to do for other people's sons what I didn't do for my own. It's a second chance." Daughter Mary helps out at the center, but life mostly revolves around men like Major, an alcoholic, and Robert, a crack addict. They're everything to her and she to them--mother, counselor, warden. Her rules are strict (no female visitors, regular urine tests, community service), but her love and support is boundless. Sister Helen is a worthy testament to an unforgettable character. --Kathleen C. FennessyOne of the most unanimously acclaimed documentaries in recent years and winner of the coveted Sundance Film Festival Directing Award, this emotionally compelling film is an inspirational and uplifting portrait of a truly colorful and most unusual New York character. Brash, foul-mouthed, and no-nonsense, Sister Helen Travis is not your typical saintly soul. A recovering alcoholic who lost her husband and sons to substance abuse, she single-handedly fights her own war on drugs as director of a halfway house for recovering addicts in NYC's South Bronx. Filmmakers Rob Fruchtman and Rebecca Cammisa put their fly-on-the-wall, cinema verit? technique to expert use as they vividly capture the complex love/hate relationship between this tough-as-nails nun and the men who both fear her and rely on her to help them battle their own inner demons. Inspired by Sinatra's "my-way-or-the-highway" mantra, Sister Helen runs a tight ship in which everyone must obey her rules and the hand that writes them. For the residents who wish to permanently kick the habit, this sobering dose of tough love may be their last and only hope.
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