Filmmakers Jillian Schultz and Leah Thompson are leading the production of You Should Never Blink, a feature-length documentary presenting the life of longtime sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, pop artist, and educator Corita Kent (1918–1986), who harnessed creativity, activism, and spirituality to become an American icon in the 1960s. Already in the 1950s, Sister Corita’s religious serigraphs had been widely acclaimed and nationally distributed in Catholic print media. In recent years, scholars have begun to incorporate Corita’s life and work more fully into art history as well as the history of American religion.

Supported by a production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, You Should Never Blink is slated for completion in early 2026. The next Conference on the History of Women Religious (CHWR), scheduled for June 22–25, 2025, at the University of Notre Dame, will feature a work-in-progress screening of scenes from the film. In summer 2024, the Cushwa Center awarded Schultz and Thompson a grant in support of a research and filming trip to the Venice Biennale, where the Holy See sponsored an exhibition featuring 18 serigraphs by Corita. Schultz and Thompson recently corresponded with Cushwa Center associate director Shane Ulbrich about the project’s origins and sources, surprises along the way, experiencing the Venice exhibit, and their next steps.

Shane Ulbrich: Tell us about this project and what led you to make the years-long commitment to create a feature-length documentary on Corita Kent?

Jillian Schultz: I first learned about Corita via Ray Smith, the former director of Corita Art Center (the primary estate of Corita Kent). In 2018, I was hired to produce an event celebrating what would have been Corita’s 100th birthday, and the rest was history. As I learned about Corita’s rich artistic legacy and collaborated with many of her former students and colleagues, I got first-hand exposure to just how beloved she is. I was completely baffled by how I could have two degrees in art history, work in the art sector in LA, live a mile away from where Immaculate Heart College was located, and yet did not previously know about this creative powerhouse! Around that same time, Leah and I were forming Two Tigers Productions. While talking about clients and upcoming projects, I told her about Corita, and she immediately asked . . .

“An independent archival film such as this is definitely a long-term commitment, but it isn’t a hardship to spend more time in Corita’s world.”

Leah Thompson: “Is there a documentary about her?” When I learned there wasn’t a contemporary documentary about Corita, that felt like a major oversight, especially with academic and public interest in her work clearly on the rise. Shortly after Jillian organized the successful centennial, our fledgling company was engaged by Corita Art Center to overhaul their communications and community engagement strategy. This project required steeping ourselves in Corita’s life, art, and ideas, and I enjoyed every minute. When the project came to a close in 2020, we finally approached the estate about our interest in independently producing a feature-length documentary. I am honored that we have been entrusted to tell Corita’s story. An independent archival film such as this is definitely a long-term commitment, but it isn’t a hardship to spend more time in Corita’s world.

SU: Walk us through your approach in terms of sources and material. Who have been key collaborators? What (new) visual material have you been unearthing? How are interviews with students of Corita and others figuring in the process as well as the final product itself?

LT: Our film is greatly indebted to a growing body of scholarship in the fields of art history and religious studies from the last decade that is focused on Corita. We are very lucky that many of the academics behind this work are advising on our film and will also be interviewed for it. They provide important insights into Corita’s life and work from different fields and vantage points.

Digging into the libraries and archives that hold Corita-related material has been a slow but rewarding discovery process, and we are thrilled to have found some never-before-seen material. We started at the Corita Art Center, who recently digitized 18,000 photographs by Corita, which will provide a new layer of detail to her story, allowing us to see the world through her eyes. Most of the footage of Corita at the height of her fame at Immaculate Heart College was filmed by Baylis Glascock, who created a number of short films about Corita’s teaching practice and Mary’s Day happenings in the 1960s.¹ We have had the pleasure of getting to know Baylis and he thankfully kept all of the “trims and outs” (i.e., the footage that ended up on the literal cutting-room floor) which are held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ film archive. We just completed a multiyear process of assessing all of this material and are now deep in the process of pairing the footage with hundreds of minutes of newly digitized mag track audio. It is a thrill to watch previously unknown scenes of Corita in her classroom come to life. We have also unearthed all the production materials from Primary Colors: The Story of Corita Kent (1991), a 60-min made for television documentary, that are held at UCLA Film & Television. Since many key figures in Corita’s life have subsequently passed, it is a gift to have access to the unedited interviews of people like Daniel Berrigan, Joseph Pintauro, and Helen Kelley sharing stories about Corita. We have also worked our way through Corita’s papers at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University. Corita was a charismatic public figure, but her personal correspondence has helped us better understand her inner life. We scheduled key interviews with two of Corita’s students-turned-later life friends, which will help share a more private side of this icon.

SU: In summer 2024, the Cushwa Center offered support in the form of a Guerin Grant to assist you in traveling to the Venice Biennale—the “Olympics of the art world”—to document the Holy See’s own exhibition featuring works of Corita Kent. Tell us about the exhibition, your experience visiting and filming it, and what the event suggests about Corita’s significance today.

JS: When we heard that Corita was among the artists featured in the Holy See’s With My Eyes exhibition inside a women’s prison, we initially assumed this meant the historical site of a long-shuttered penitentiary. We were intrigued, and frankly daunted, to discover that the show was taking place inside an active, operational women’s prison, where cameras (among other things) are not allowed. Although a trip to film at the Venice Biennale was not part of our original budget for the film, making a documentary means following the story wherever it is unfolding. The Vatican Pavilion choosing to feature Corita’s work at the Venice Biennale is quite significant for her legacy and for our film. Not only is the Biennale a high-profile global art event, but also the Pope visiting for the first time was a major milestone. The New York Times referred to this as “a posthumous rehabilitation of sorts.” The Guerin Grant provided invaluable support at a critical moment in production and we are so grateful!

“We were all in tears. The experience of having one’s agency and freedom of movement as a viewer restricted was quite visceral, made even more poignant when paired with the poems and personal reflections shared by our inmate docents throughout.”

I’ve spent decades curating, producing, and writing about international art events like the Biennale, but visiting With My Eyes was a singular experience. Unlike a typical museum or gallery experience, visitors were not free to wander, but rather were guided by female inmates who gave powerful personalized tours including their own responses to the featured artwork. Visitors are also accompanied at every moment by at least one prison guard. No door is opened before the one behind it is locked. Time spent with each artwork is not at one’s own discretion. The group views everything collectively and in its entirety, with no exceptions. While all of this is rather unconventional for an international art event, it was indescribably impactful. We were all in tears. The experience of having one’s agency and freedom of movement as a viewer restricted was quite visceral, made even more poignant when paired with the poems and personal reflections shared by our inmate docents throughout. It was an experiential expression of power, justice, access, and freedom. It was incredible and affronting and I believe Corita would have been impressed.

From a production perspective, this successful shoot was a major achievement for us. To bring the scene to life, we planned to film Jeffrey Gibson, a queer Indigenous sculptor who cites Corita as a major influence, as he viewed Corita’s artwork in the With My Eyes exhibition. Jeffrey happened to be the solo artist representing the United States at the Biennale, so he is also having a major career moment. We had to assemble an international crew, while remaining small and nimble, and secure permissions to film (from the Holy See and the Italian Ministry of Justice) in a location that, in principle, allowed zero photography. We had to be ready for anything, including the possibility that we would not actually be allowed to film upon arrival. We did as much advanced planning and preparation (and praying!) as we could, and then just trusted that the rest would unfold as it was meant to. There were moments where it felt impossible, but ultimately, we are thrilled with the results.

SU: What’s been the most surprising discovery so far in this project?

JS: I continue to be surprised and delighted by Corita’s humor. We were aware that she was an incredibly effective educator, known for ambitious assignments and exacting standards, so I assumed she might have been a bit severe. But throughout our research, we’ve uncovered so many great little jokes. A few that immediately come to mind are press quotes like “I’m from Iowa so corny appeals to me” or “people always expect me to be taller.” Also in some of the teaching footage, she has an enchanting twinkle in her eye. She has absolute command of the classroom but there’s also a sort of playful, rascally energy behind it.

“It is the rare documentary subject whose ideas motivate you through the filmmaking struggle.”

LT: It is the rare documentary subject whose ideas motivate you through the filmmaking struggle, and I think that is what continues to surprise me. Corita never found it easy to begin making her art. It seems she enjoyed the process once she was going, but starting was always hard. And so many of her teachings are geared towards helping us (and herself) get out of our own way creatively. She actively encourages us to be a little less precious and to take a few more risks. Based on her colorful, joyous, and prolific output, many would never guess how hard the process was for her. And whenever I am feeling stuck I seem to encounter a relevant essay, quote, or teaching by Corita that reminds me, “it’s lighter than you think.”

SU: Has anything been particularly challenging about this project, and about telling Corita’s story in particular?

LT: The greatest challenge we face with this project is resource scarcity. We would love to spend every day fully steeped in the “Corita-verse,” but we are forced to strategically balance our time between working on the film and other more economically sustaining projects to stay afloat. Archival material and animation are both expensive. We have been very successful with grant writing, and yet the timeline around grants impose unfortunate limitations on how quickly films can be completed. Corita’s path as an artist began as a nun and teacher, but only when she was 50 did she figure out how to truly support herself independently through her art alone. Our artistic success might require a similarly long path. But the struggle is worth it to have the opportunity to share Corita’s story with a new audience. She has so much to still teach us all.

SU: To the extent you want to share any specifics, what can we expect to see in June 2025 at CHWR in terms of the work-in-progress screening? As filmmakers actively engaged in re-presenting Corita’s life, what are you hoping to get out of participating at the conference sessions and engaging with the scholars and archivists there?

JS: At CHWR, the film will still be taking shape, so folks can look forward to a truly behind-the-scenes look at how documentaries get made! We will share a mix of nearly locked and less polished scenes, with an eye towards giving everyone a sense of our approach and the huge range of material we’re working with, from contemporary verite footage to 16mm archival and animation.

We are really looking forward to learning from our fellow attendees and hearing how the material is landing with them, especially as subject matter experts on women religious and Catholicism. That is the exciting part about sharing a work-in-progress—I am sure we will receive feedback or hear anecdotes that will change the outcome of our film. At our session, we are hoping to loop in Tim Dulle, one of our project advisors as well as an interview subject, who will be presenting at the conference during a panel session. We’d love for him to share a bit more about his experience collaborating with our team over the course of the last few years, from research through production.

More broadly, our aim is to galvanize interest in the project, build our audience, and activate communities that care about Corita’s life and work. Once the film is complete, we face a whole new adventure when it comes to distribution . . . which is somewhat harrowing for independent documentary at present. We are planning a robust impact campaign, including a tour of community screenings with accompanying art-making activities and curricula. We know the film will have a rich life down the line when it comes to educational distribution. We hope the CHWR event will leave people eager to see more and eventually spread the word to their students, colleagues, and beyond.

Jillian Schultz is a producer working at the intersection of art and activism. Her work in documentary film began with co-producing the New York Times op-oc My American Surrogate (Leslie Tai, 2019). She also produced Tai’s feature documentary debut, How to Have an American Baby, which premiered in 2023. She has curated exhibitions and produced public programs around the world. She earned her B.A. (art history and Asian studies) from Tulane University and her M.A. (art history and East Asian languages and cultures) from Columbia University.

Leah Thompson is a documentary filmmaker and producer interested in how creative communities foster social and environmental change. Her short documentary, How to Start Your Own Utopia, followed Chinese artist Ou Ning as he built a utopian commune in a dying village—equal parts art, anarchy, and back-to-the-land movement. The film has been included in exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao as well as SFMOMA. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in history from University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University, respectively, with a focus on American cultural and intellectual history.

Originally published by Shane Ulbrich at cushwa.nd.edu on March 19, 2025.