The Carmelites

This NZBC religious programme goes where TV cameras had never gone before: behind the walls of the Carmelite monastery in Christchurch. There, it finds a community of 16 Catholic nuns, members of a 400-year-old order, who have shut themselves off from the outside world to lead lives devoted to prayer, contemplation and simple manual work. Despite their seclusion, the sisters are unphased by the intrusion and happy to discuss their lives and their beliefs; while the simplicity and ceremony of their world provides fertile ground for the monochrome camerawork.

If you believe in God, all this may make sense to you. If you don’t, I don’t know what you’re going to make of the Carmelites.

– Presenter Bernard Smythe

Key Cast & Crew

Peter Muxlow

Director, Producer

Bernard Smyth

Writer, Reporter

Ian Miller

Sound

John Denton

Editor

Alan Clease

Sound

Frank Oakeshott

Camera