Jules Hart with two women featured in Pink Smoke Over the Vatican
K: What is your background in film?
Jules: In my mid-thirties, after working for many years as a model and actress, professions that aren't known for being kind to aging women, I decided to change directions and get a college degree, something that I had failed to do when I was younger. I was fortunate to be admitted back into UCLA (after dropping out at 20), and found myself taking a class called "Film and Folklore." I was enthralled. I loved the films, all of which explored intimate, humble subjects like how people do laundry in a certain neighborhood in Baltimore; or what drives someone to spend their lives carving a particular type of chair in rural Kentucky; or how the construction of a memorial to a dead circus elephant changed a town in the Midwest forever. When the professor said that we had 2 choices for the final: write a paper or make a film, I jumped at the opportunity to make a movie. I decided to make a 10-minute short about a woman who felt connected to her Yugoslavian grandmother who had died when she was a young child, through the baking of a traditional bird-shaped bread that she had learned from her mother. My professor loved it and entered it into a film festival at UCLA. From there I was able to get a small undergraduate fellowship to make my next film about a woman drummer entitled Beyond
Women With Cakes: The Spiritual Drumming of Layne Redmond.
K: What prompted you to go on your own with Eye Goddess?
Jules: One month before my graduation my father died suddenly. Our family was devastated and it became clear to me that my mother might not survive the initial shock and grief on her own. So I moved home, thinking it would be just for the summer, and that I would return to UCLA in the fall for graduate school. I had decided that I was going to get a PhD in Folklore and hopefully teach one day.
However my mother did not recover quickly, and as the months passed and I had time to do some deep soul-searching, I realized that I was only going to graduate school because I didn't know what else to do with my life. I felt that the tragedy of my Dad's death had actually given me an opportunity to follow my true heart's desire - and that I simply had to have the courage to follow my dream.
So I took a leap of faith, sold my condo in LA, and permanently moved in with my mother. I bought a digital video camera and editing equipment, and formed Eye Goddess Films - although at the time I had no idea how I was going to make a living. I was 40 years old, starting a new career with practically no experience, and living a couple of hours away from any city that could offer any real opportunities for a career in filmmaking.
As my mother recovered, she was able to get out more, and one day I took her on an outing to her women's club fashion show. She suggested that I bring my camera along and videotape the show. As I was setting up my camera, a woman approached me and asked if I wanted a job. They were looking for a videographer to document their summer youth program. I ended up working for the County of Monterey for the next 3 years. During that time I created a 30-minute documentary about a group of at-risk youth who had carved at 27' totem pole and had given it as a gift to the City of New York as a symbol of hope and healing after 9-11. The Healing Pole aired on PBS in 2002, the first production of Eye Goddess Films.
K: What do you hope to achieve in regard to women, ultimately, with
Eye Goddess?
Jules: My goal is to make films that empower women and men, that uplift, and that give a voice to the voiceless. By sharing stories that honor the individual experience and that highlight our shared values and the everyday struggles that make us human, I hope to give audiences an opportunity to experience our interconnectedness, and through that connection, offer an opportunity for greater understanding, hope and healing.
I wince a bit when I read that because these kinds of mission statements tend to sound so trite, like the Miss America contestants wanting world peace, but I really feel that documentary filmmakers are activists by nature and strive to make a difference in the world with their films. So I hope that my films, which tend to focus on women's issues and women's rights, will help shine a light on the injustices, inequities, and the all-pervasive violence that are so devastating to ½ of the world's population.
K: What was your inspiration for "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican?"
Jules: In 2004, there was an article about me in a local newspaper. In it I spoke about my interest in feminist spirituality and in the empowerment of women. Shortly afterwards a woman contacted me and told me that she was going to be ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church and asked me if that was something that I'd be interested in documenting. Initially I said "no." I'm not Catholic and didn't really see why this would be a compelling topic for a film. I wasn't even aware that women aren't allowed to be priests. But after meeting her and hearing her story and the stories of other women who have been threatened, silenced, and denied the opportunity to follow their "call" merely because of their gender, I was determined to make this film and to make their voices heard.
K: Do you see Catholic women and their male Catholic supporters perhaps branching off to form another church in the future, if the Vatican continues its current stance on women's rights?
Jules: I can't speak for all of the women, but most do not want to leave the Roman Catholic Church, their spiritual home. They feel that the Church does not belong to the Pope or to the hierarchy. As one woman states in the film, "I'm as much a Catholic as the Pope is."
Another interviewee compares being Catholic to being from Great Britain, "I'm British. I can't leave being British just because I don't like the Queen." And the youngest woman that I interviewed declared that she won't leave the Catholic Church because she doesn't want to pass the burden of fighting for women's equality onto the next generation.
K: How can women watch this movie if there isn't a screening in their city?
Jules: Eventually the DVD will be for sale. They can email me at eyegoddess@earthlink.net and I will happily put them on my mailing list.
K: Is there one project in particular that you hold closest to your heart?
Jules: I have to say that Pink Smoke Over the Vatican has struck the deepest chord in me, more than any of my previous films. Perhaps it is because I have spent the past 5 years of my life with these courageous women and men and I believe so strongly in the
rightness of their cause. And it has nothing to do with my religious convictions. For me it is a social justice, human rights issue. In the film we quote Martin Luther King Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
K: Can you give us a preview of any upcoming projects we can look forward to?
Jules: I can't yet, but stay tuned! When I was making this film most of the
women that I interviewed spoke of being "called" to the priesthood. I feel the same way about making this film. So I await the next call...
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