Sister Clare Crockett who devoted her life to good work with the people of Ecuador
A film is being made about the life of Derry-born nun Sister Clare Crockett who was killed in an earthquake in Ecuador earlier this year.
The 33-year-old, who struggled with alcohol as a teenager and announced her plan to join holy orders “with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other”, was hailed at her funeral as an inspiration to other women.
She died when a building in which she had been teaching the guitar to local children collapsed in April.
The documentary, entitled All or Nothing: Sister Clare Crockett, uses a huge archive of photographs and audio and video recordings of the Brandywell woman over the last 15 years.
It is being produced for a television channel run by her order, the Home of the Mother, but a wider release has not been ruled out.
The filmmakers have been in Derry visiting Sr Clare’s grave as well as interviewing her parents, Margaret and Gerard, friends and local priest Fr Roland Colhoun.
The order has also set up a website about Sister Clare including photographs from her life as a nun and before entering the convent at the age of 18.
A trailer for the film also features footage and commentary by Sr Clare herself as well as many previously unseen pictures.
The producers said they decided to tell her story because Sr Clare had touched so many lives.
“We were amazed by how Sr Clare’s story reached so many people so quickly after her death. The fruits were immediate and many people wanted to get to know her better.
“The Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother began to look through their archives and found many images of her.”
In a message recorded in 2014 – and reproduced on the film’s webpage – Sr Clare told how she had never thought of becoming a nun.
“I wanted to be an actress – not just any actress, but a famous actress. I not only wanted to be famous in Ireland but in the whole world. My goal was to make it to Hollywood,” she said.
When she was 17, she said alcohol “began to be a serious problem for me – my weekends consisted of getting drunk with my friends”.
However, after going on a retreat with friends in the mistaken belief it was a holiday, she said she felt God’s call and a year later entered the convent before devoting herself to helping vulnerable people in the world.
All or Nothing: Sister Clare Crockett will be broadcast towards the end of next year.
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