Sister Patchouli

Community Film Premieres in Fairfield, Iowa, October 9-10 at Sondheim Center

by Patrick Bosold

Sondra Ward stars in Sister Patchouli, an independent film shot in Fairfield, Iowa, in spring 2008.

“I want to be myself for a living,” Sharon Bosquet sings as the opening credits roll for Sister Patchouli, a micro-budget independent film that was shot here in Fairfield in the spring of 2008. Sharon’s a talented singer and songwriter, and she delivers the perfect opening tune for Sister Patchouli, a story of opportunities lost and love nonetheless found in unlikely places and relationships in a small Midwestern town. Sister Patchouli is a fun-loving, community-based work conceived, written, and filmed by Scott Thompson, whose niche in the movie industry is making films by and about small Midwestern communities that have something special to offer.

Margaret Ann Collins, nicknamed Sister Patchouli by her many friends because of her willingness to extend a helping hand to others in her community, has some challenges that don’t look like they’re heading for amicable solutions anytime soon. Patch is holding down what seems like a dead-end job at a small retail store on the town square, owned by a woman who evidently doesn’t understand that you need to charge money for what you sell or else you go out of business. Local residents have gotten into the habit of coming to Patch with their problems. These folks include a teenage girl who claims that she needs a place of refuge from her homicidal grandmother; the town drunk who’s trying to sober up; and a friend who arranges for Patch to counsel a young woman who, unbeknownst to Patch, is trying to reach out to a father who’s back from a tour of duty in Iraq and is acting suicidal. Add to that Patch’s domineering mother, Barbara. She’s a maven for perfection who’s disapproved of almost every decision that Patch has made since grade school, and she never stops letting Patch know about it.

Sondra Ward, who most recently played the part of scheming seductress Mrs. Potiphar in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Sondheim Center, plays the lead role of Patch with a combination of innocence and deal-with-it, realistic kindness that makes it easy to buy into Patch’s multiple dilemmas and root for her in spite of obvious errors in judgment and self-made reversals of fortune. Ward is ably supported by a cast that includes Margaret Claire West as the disapproving mother, Barbara, who gives Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest a run for her money. Tom Todar as Jake is a perfectly conflicted and inept Mr. Midlife Crisis who reminds 40+ and 50+ guys everywhere of our capacity for doing stupid, terminally embarrassing things that we’re likely to do if we “go geographic” and make a big life change in our lives, only to discover that what we really needed to do is deal with our inner stuff.

Other notable performances in Sister Patchouli are delivered by John Grant as Jake’s perplexed buddy Ray; Ali Sperry and Emily Pucell as Patch’s sassy, worldly sisters Regan and Brooke; Savannah Quinn as Alexis, an over-the-top, too-hot-to-handle Harley biker babe; and quite a few others who do justice to those small and mid-size supporting roles that make a film like this work. This includes Burt Chojnowski, Nancy Green, Connie Boyer, Matt Ticciati, Kelly Custer Todar, Laura Smith, Emily Wofford, Amber Louros, Erika Richards, Raven Garland, Sara Hawthorne, and quite a few other Fairfielders who gave their time and energy to making Sister Patchouli a finished, feature-length film. Suffice it to say that you’ll see a lot of friends and acquaintances who you know in this film, and you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised at how well some of them can act. Myself, playing Patch’s father Donald, I experienced Herman Melville’s “shock of recognition” as I watched my scenes: “Good God, I really DO look old enough to be her father!” I look forward to your comments on how well I played that part.

Don’t expect thrill-a-minute pacing or an unending stream of visual and verbal gags from “Sister Patchouli.” This film has some of both, but Thompson takes his time in developing many of the film’s characters and scenes. This is a community-based filmmaking project that’s built around the same premise as Community Theater: the actors aren’t supposed to be professionals, they’re local people who want to have some fun, get a taste of what it’s like to work on camera, and participate in a movie project. The leads and many of the supporting players do an excellent job of bringing their characters to life by really being in the moment they’re in, being the relationships they’re in, and expressing the feelings that they naturally feel as they behave truthfully in the circumstances and settings they’re given.

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