''Rebel Hearts'' is a 2021 American documentary film, directed, produced, and edited by Pedro Kos. The film follows nuns at the

Immaculate Heart College Immaculate Heart College was a private, Catholic college located in Los Angeles, California. The college offered various courses including art and religious education studies. By June 1906, six young women had become the first graduates of the ...

. It had its world premiere at the

2021 Sundance Film Festival The 2021 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 28 to February 3, 2021. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 15, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Utah, the festival combined in-person screenings at the Ray ...

on January 29, 2021. It was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on June 25, 2021, prior to digital streaming on

Discovery+ Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

on June 27, 2021.

Synopsis

The film follows a group of progressive nuns at the

, including

Anita Caspary Anita M. Caspary, IHM (November 4, 1915 in Herrick, South Dakota – October 5, 2011 in Los Angeles, California) was an American former religious sister and later the president of an ecumenical Christian community. Under her leadership as Mother G ...

, Helen Kelley, and

Corita Kent Corita Kent (November 20, 1918 – September 18, 1986), born Frances Elizabeth Kent and also known as Sister Mary Corita Kent, was an American artist, designer and educator, and former religious sister. Key themes in her work included Christiani ...

as they made sure women received degrees, and transformed the education system.

Production

Shawnee Isaac-Smith had the idea of making a documentary film revolving around the nuns at

, and conducted over 50 interviews with the nuns, however, ran into difficulty securing financing. Isaac-Smith saved the interviews until she found the right creative partners, which would ultimately be twenty years later, when Pedro Kos and

Kira Carstensen Kira Carstensen is a documentary film maker. On January 24, 2012, she was nominated for an Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film in ...

would join as producer, and director, respectively. Once Kos joined the production, production resumed and they shot additional footage for the film.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on January 29, 2021. Shortly after,

acquired distribution rights to the film. It also screened at

AFI Docs The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Started ...

on June 23, 2021. It was released in a

on June 25, 2021, prior to digital streaming on June 27, 2021, on

Critical reception

''Rebel Hearts'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 90% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 21 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 7.80/10.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, rebel_hearts 2021 films American documentary films 2021 documentary films Documentary films about women Documentary films about feminism Documentary films about misogyny History of Los Angeles History of women in California Immaculate Heart College alumni 2020s English-language films 2020s American films