REBEL NUN premiered Thursday, June 6, 2024 at Village East Angelika. The film follows the story of Catholic nun Sister Helen Prejean. Sister Helen wrote the book Dead Man Walking that was published in 1993 and she is known as a leading death penalty abolitionist. In 1995, the film Dead Man Walking was made thanks to Susan Saradon’s reading of the book and gut instinct to tell this story on the screen as well. After some nudging her husband Tim Robbins, he too read the book and became inspired to write and direct the piece. The film won Susan Sarandon an Oscar for her role as Sister Helen. Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and Bruce Springsteen received Oscar nominations that year for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original song.  Now, almost 30 years later, filmmaker Dominic Sivyer's REBEL NUN takes a look at Sister Helen's six decades of life and work as she continues to be an inspirational voice for justice.

In the 2013 re-release of the book by publisher Vintage Books a division of Random House, Inc New York, Dead Man Walking, includes a foreword by Desmond Tutu. He refers to a quote of Sister Helen's "Everyone is worth more than the worst act of his or her life." To examine the lesson that killing those who kill is not the way to show murder is wrong. We show this by forgiveness. "Forgiveness is never going to be easy," Sister Helen writes, "Each day it must be prayed for and struggled for and won." The 2013 book re-release also includes an afterword from Susan Sarandon where she tells how she came across this book and how she was able to get Tim Robbins to read the book too. Tim Robbins afterward revels how upon reading the book he too is inspired to tell Sister Helen's honest and direct story. He also shares his desire to have this book planted like a seed in everyone's hand to read for themselves. In his 1995 film adaptation of the book and this wish for seedlings to drop, he was successful. I was asked if I wanted and was handed a free copy of this paperback upon entering the theater of the REBEL NUN premiere screening at Tribeca Festival 2024. Thank you, I am eager to read.

The 100 minute film REBEL NUN from Passion Pictures is part of the Spotlight Documentary section at the Tribeca Festival. At the festival premiere, Sister Helen Prejean, Director/Co-writer/Producer Dominic Sivyer, and Susan Sarandon were present to launch this new film.

Here are a few pics from the premiere: