The Unruly Mystic Documentary Series

Category: Video

  • Asking a question is hard in live virtual events

    Asking a question is hard in live virtual events

    Learning from answers

    As the filmmaker-pilgrim behind The Unruly Mystic Series, I have always enjoyed hearing the answers that helped to inform me about the subject material for my films. I learned that knowing the right questions to task is the hardest part. Perhaps that comes from my DNA as the son of an astronomer (Peter S. Conti, September 5, 1934 – June 21, 2021). The answers I received through many hours of interviews helped inform me and gave me insight into my own constantly developing spirituality. That is entirely different in my new live virtual events where I don’t have the luxury of thoughtful editing.

    Through the process of making these films and putting on these live virtual events, I gained more confidence in my own creative work and importance of making something of value for the world. For those of us that haven’t yet taken that plunge fully, I would say there is someone right now looking for something that your future self will be creating.

    Going Live in virtual events

    I have encounter more people whose subject knowledge would have included them in my films. Their personal journeys are inspirational to me, each unique in their own way. But it would be virtually impossible to include everyone into a 120-minute film!

    Starting in 2020, during the pandemic, I decided to use a virtual live events format more fully where I can share those interviews in real-time and provoke a conversation in breakout rooms. These are the types of conversations which can lead to profound change and newer understanding of the world around us, and in us.

    The first experiment with live virtual events occurred with a VMuir Day Panel 2020 in which we celebrated John Muir’s one hundred and eight-second birthday during the Covid-19 pandemic on April 21, 2020. I asked my panelists questions about death, how they are connecting with nature while in isolation, and why John Muir is still relevant today.

    After running a bigger live virtual event in September of that same year for Saint Hildegard’s Feast Day on September 17th with over 150 virtual pilgrims attending the first live virtual Saint Hildegard Pilgrimage I have decided to make a repeat with Saint Hildegard presenters in 2021 (link below for sign-up).

    Hildegard Requirements

    • Has a personal connection to Saint Hildegard’s teachings, medicine, art or music
    • Done something interesting around that creative connection (has taken the plunge).
    • Is able to share their own process in doing that work.

    A work-in-progress

    I see each of us in Saint Hildegard, and Saint Hildegard in each of us too. That is a work-in-progress.

    Join with me in the conversation as we celebrate the spirituality and creativity of Saint Hildegard, as manifested by her natural medicine, art, writing, and music.

    Offering a virtual pilgrimage again in September for Saint Hildegard, both live and pre-recorded. Besides the 12-days of recordings, there are live 2-days of virtual events over Saint Hildegard’s Feast Day, September 17 & 18, 2021.
    https://sainthildegard.com/

    Join us in celebrating:

    Offering a live virtual pilgrimage again in September for Saint Hildegard, both live and pre-recorded. Besides the 12-days of recordings, there are live 2-days of live virtual events over Saint Hildegard’s Feast Day, September 17 & 18, 2021. 

    On September 17th 2021, at 1 PM EST, Saint Hildegard Feast Day starts with the ringing of the bells from the Hildegard Haus in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, followed by a sermon by Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer. On Saturday, September 18th, Rev. Carol Vaccariello starts the day at 1 PM EST. Later Rector Susan Springer, provides a “solemnity” for St John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colorado.

    Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox who is the author of Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs, Hildegard of Bingen, a Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century, will share some thoughts with us on spirituality and creativity.

  • Now more than ever relevant!

    Now more than ever relevant!

    Screenings

    Now more than ever we all long for order in which fairness, justice and compassion for all people is demonstrated by our respective governments. Saint Hildegard had her own “unruly-ness” to the powers of the church by allowing an excommunicated nobleman to be buried in the cemetery at the convent. Whose teaching was she following in taking that unruly action?  That teaching is still relevant today.

    Isn’t it time you became unruly? In unruliness, find your own mystic heart.

    Now more than ever relevant!

    Audiences everywhere are fired up by Saint Hildegard’s 12th Century activism, creativity and ability to speak her mind from 800 years ago.

    Now more than ever
    Students at Oxford Emory University

  • Remembering Linn Maxwell Keller

    Linn Maxwell Keller was indeed an embodiment of Saint Hildegard in both spirit and talent, truly worthy of being her own version of a patron saint of creativity. 

    Linn Maxwell Keller – An interesting  connection

    On how I first heard of Linn Maxwell Keller occurred during the spring of 2013 when I was researching Saint Hildegard online in Boulder for my film, The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard.  I found out that Linn Maxwell was performing that very next night in Denver at DU, and while I couldn’t see her in concert as I was teaching that night, I called her the next day to introduce myself.  You never know how someone will take your call or if they will make themselves available to your requests of filming them.  Besides inviting me to Jackson Hole later that year, she opened up a whole new perspective for me on Hildegard’s music and was kind enough to allow me to use clips of her work in my final film.  She also introduced me to other people in her community, most notably Dr. Beverly Kienzle who was a professor at Harvard Divinity School at that time.  Sadly she passed away, way too soon a couple years after I released my film with her in it.

    Linn Maxwell Keller
    Linn Maxwell Keller during her interview for The Unruly Mystic at her summer home in Jackson Hole

    Remembering Linn Maxwell Keller (Dec 6, 1943 -June 18, 2016) 

    “On St. Hildegard’s feast day I and many others remember a beloved friend, Linn Maxwell Keller, an internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano. As The Times of London review proclaimed (August 2010) and many of us experienced at her performances, “Hildegard is reborn as mezzo Linn Maxwell”.  Linn performed with world-class orchestras, was featured in many international opera companies, and played recital halls across the United States and in twenty-five other countries. On April 19, 2015,  Linn performed her play, Hildegard of Bingen and the Living Light, to a spellbound audience at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cambridge, MA. From Boston, she departed for a tour of Australia, performing in several cities. She completed a second play, St. Hildegard: Trumpet of God, also available on CD. Linn and her ensemble,The Hildegard Singers, recorded two CDs of Hildegard’s music: O Greenest Branch: Songs of St. Hildegard of Bingen, and Hildegard of Bingen: Songs from the Abbey. Her other recordings range from opera to cabaret.”*

    Linn is deeply missed by all of us who knew her–family, friends, fans, and the communities she supported.  

    Her work lives online with the interviews and selected scenes from her film, Hildegard of Bingen and the Living Light. You can see more about this amazing woman in The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard.

    *Thank you to Dr. Beverly Kienzle for this memory.