The Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia will host at least two films featuring novice nuns next month. On September 9, it will screen The Sound of Music (1965), starring Julie Andrews; and on September 15, the opening gala will include a screening of Thom Fitzgerald’s new film, 3 Needles, described thusly:
This epic film on a worldwide epidemic spans three continents and features a star-studded ensemble cast. In South Africa, Clara (Chloë Sevigny) is a novice nun. Her mission is to convert the rapidly dying Africans to Catholicism before it’s too late. Along with two fellow sisters (Sandra Oh, Olympia Dukakis), she runs a clinic to administer to the most ill villagers. In China, Jin Ping (Lucy Liu) sets up her mobile blood collection service in a remote village. When farmer Tong Sam (Tanabadee Chokpikultong) is barred from selling his blood because he has the flu, he lies about his daughter’s age so she can sell blood twice a month instead. Soon, his wife and daughter are both mysteriously ill. In Canada, Denys (Shawn Ashmore) is a second-rate porn actor who passes his monthly blood tests by stealing samples from his geriatric father. When he gets caught, his family is thrown into turmoil. Facing the prospect of long-term care for her son, his mother Olive (Stockard Channing) develops a plan to escape the poverty that has held them back from enjoying life.
FWIW, I recall enjoying the interview I did with Fitzgerald eight years ago, when his first film, the somewhat over-rated The Hanging Garden (1997), came to the Vancouver film festival. But I didn’t care at all for his very sentimental and manipulative pro-euthanasia movie The Event (2003; my review).
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