Inquiring Nuns
Directors: Gordon Quinn, Jerry Temaner

Nuns: I’ve met a few, and here’s something I know for sure. They’re up for stuff. Sr Concepta, my favourite nun at boarding school, was game for almost anything as long as it didn’t involve alcohol consumption. She even said yes to me having a boyfriend in the sixth form, and ignored the rabbits we smuggled into the dormitories. And one of the most impressive traits of my Carmelite aunt is the gusto with which she’ll embrace almost any wacky idea; she’s travelled round the world, and joined me on a Cornish hiking trip – not bad going for an enclosed nun.

So it doesn’t surprise me in the least that when a movie director came knocking at the door of a Dominican convent in Chicago in 1967, the nuns were open to hearing his idea. And hey, was it bonkers: he wanted two of them, Sr Mary Campion and Sr Marie Arné, to do what us pros call a “vox pop”. The question he wanted them to ask the good folks of Illinois was simple, and yet incredibly complex: “Are you happy?” The exercise was filmed, and became the basis for a documentary movie called Inquiring Nuns. First released in 1968, it has been updated and made available in Britain for the first time (selected Curzon cinemas, and on demand).