Filming inside a Burmese Buddhist nunnery
Kim Shelton, an American meditator who spent her winters at Shwe Oo Min monastery, is one of the first filmmakers who attempted to bring the Burmese Buddhist nun’s life to the big screen with her documentary, A Thousands Mothers. She took her film crew to a remote nunnery in the Sagaing Hills and portrayed the wide range of experience to be found from those in robes. The result transports the viewer into the spiritual life of Myanmar. In my interview with her, she talked about why she wanted to make the film, and shared some behind-the-scenes moments from the production as well.
“She would answer questions, and then close her eyes, and just sort of go into like this deep samadhi or something. And just really still.”
Host: So another thing I noticed as an observer of the film, was just how open and honest and real the the nuns were, from a very young age to teenage years to being in their 20s, and then older into the abbess of the nunnery. They are all quite open in terms of describing these different aspects of the nuns’ life and their own personal feelings with it. Was it challenging to get this kind of raw honesty out them? Did you have to have a series of conversations to get to that point, or did you find it just kind of flowed out from the start?
Kim Shelton: I think that was my concern from the very beginning, when I was looking at the different nunneries, because I really didn't know if I'd be able to get that. Some people had said, ‘No, I don't know if you're going to get those kinds of personal conversations.’ So it was always a concern.
But we had an all-women team, like a camera woman, sound woman and the translator was also a woman. Everyone was so open and friendly, it was such a great crew that I could get, and we all just came together. I did not have to really work to do anything, it just sort of happened naturally! The openness, it just felt like this is the way these nuns are, or certainly the way they were with us.
The camera woman, Kristen Johnson, travels and shot films all over the world, and has a really great rapport with making people feel comfortable in front of a camera. And although they did not really know what a camera was, at least in terms of a big movie camera!
In fact, the funny story was, one of the questions I later asked was, ‘Did you think it was going to be like this, that we would be here filming for multiple days?’ I mean I had said it would be 10 days, but you just never really know what that means. People don't really understand what the production of a documentary takes. And the Abbess laughed, and she just said, ‘I thought you were just going come with your cell phone and just take photos of things. That's what I thought the film was going be.’
She was really funny. We all had the best laugh about that, because obviously, that's not what happened! The translator, Petra, was very good, and sometimes I would just say, ‘Don't turn around! If you feel like there's a flow with the conversation, don't translate, don't give me everything back. Don't break the flow of something. You know what I want to ask.’
Then there was one nun who meditates in a cave. And she'd been doing that for three years. We didn't think she'd want to be interviewed, but she did, and it was very interesting. She would answer questions, and then close her eyes, and just sort of go into like this deep samadhi or something. And just really still. The first time she did that, the camera woman and the sound women just like looked at me like, ‘What's going on? Is she okay?’
She just sort of just got really quiet, and I said, ‘I think she's fine.’ We asked the next question. She just slowly opened her eyes answered the question. And then just closed the eyes again and went back. And that's how the interview went. But they were not used to seeing that at first.”