The best doc on Sister Aimee. Features interviews with her daughter, the leading man in her theatrical sermons, those who knew her and worked closely with her, and the warriors in a legal battle over her legacy and Temple. This seminal Academy Aard-considered film prepared Rossi to make his masterful feature "Aimee Semple McPherson" (2006) Hard to believe Rossi made this for a few hundred dollars in a few days, and received numerous threats to try to stop him from exhibiting the film from Aimee loyalists. Religious folks can be nasty. The interview with Aimee's daughter,age 95, is masterfully lit and shot and is the narrative framework of the cinema-verite movie.
3 Reviews
A brilliant documentary on controversial faith healer and pioneering woman, Aimee McPherson
jacksbernstein19 June 2002
Rossi's cinema verite style and interviews with Aimee McPherson's surviving daughter, secretary, actors, and then his shift into the present and the legal battles swirling around her church and legacy is masterful. I cannot wait to see the feature film Rossi is currently shooting on Aimee McPherson. Rossi sets an incredible period piece mood by having an elderly lady who played piano for Sister Aimee haltingly play the old 1920's music. His innovative camera angles and sense of narrative is reminiscent of Fellini and Bergman.
Captures the essence of a pioneering woman who was recently voted the most important figure in the development of Los Angeles in the twentieth century
eryba17 July 2002
Saving Sister Aimee is a piece of art that is all the more remarkable when considering Rossi made it in a few weeks with just a few thousand dollars for Academy consideration. Rossi's camera angles and masterful use of innovative close-ups and extreme close-ups on lips or an ear when a secret is being unveiled was riveting, he has been imitated and is just starting to be credited for pushing the art of filmmaking forward...
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