This
thoughful labor of love was written, directed, and produced by
Claudia Larson and premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film
Festival.
Synopsis
Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me A Saint
tells the story of the New York writer and Catholic anarchist
who at the height of the Depression unwittingly created what would
become a worldwide peace and social justice movement. The Catholic
Worker persists to this day in over 180 houses of hospitality
and soup kitchens across the United States, in Europe, Australia,
Canada and Mexico. Their tenet is based on doing works of mercy
and living in voluntary poverty with no attachments
to Church or State. |
And although the Vatican is currently
considering Dorothy Day for canonization, she is no ordinary saint.
Caught up in the Bohemian whirl of 1917 Greenwich Village, Dorothy
wrote for radical papers, associated with known Communists, attempted
suicide and had an illegal abortion, a doomed common-law marriage
and a child out of wedlock. The birth of her only child led to her
religious conversion.
The film takes us through Dorothy's protests of the 1950's air-raid
drills, her last arrest in 1973 with the United Farm Workers and
to her death on November 29, 1980 at the home she founded for
homeless women on New York’s Bowery.
Interviews with Dorothy, her daughter, and close intimates coupled
with never-before-seen family photographs, personal writings and
powerful archival footage paint a dramatic picture of Dorothy’s
most difficult journey to create and live out a vision of a more
just world.
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“Claudia Larson became a filmmaker
to tell Day’s story, and has ably compressed into 57 minutes
Day’s extraordinary 83-year life.”
- Ronnie Scheib,
Variety
“Day was a strong-willed proponent for social justice,
and led an unconventional social life. After converting to Catholicism,
she changed much of her personal behavior, but did not stop her
public fights for equality.”
- Perry
Seibert, The New York Times
Tribeca Film Festival 2006 Hot Tickets
- Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me a Saint is
a "don't miss."
- Special Green
Issue, Vanity Fair
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View film summary at tribecafilm.com
Contacts & Sources
Claudia Larson – writer/director/producer
onelucky@pacbell.net Alejandro
Valdes-Rochin – editor/co-producer
www.valdes-rochin.com
Sam Shinn – director of photography
www.ironeye.com
Marquette University – Dorothy Day Archive
Phil.Runkel@marquette.edu
www.marquette.edu
Catholic Worker
www.catholicworker.org
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