Coming to Streaming & DVD April 15: "FINAL VOWS"

Final Vows chronicles the life of a cloistered order of nuns at Santa Rita Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in the high desert of Arizona. The nuns, who take a vow that binds them to remain in the community they entered for life, candidly share their joys and struggles. While each woman’s journey is unique, they all felt a call and chose to join this community of prayer and work.

The nuns rise at 4am for their first prayers of the day and support themselves through the production and sale of altar bread. The Abbey faces challenges as the nuns are aging and few young women are choosing a monastic life. The Abbess, a life-sustaining presence for this striving community, may be required to step down soon when she turns 75 years old.

Made from small moments of daily life, the film serves as a meditation on aging and caring for others and asks viewers to consider if this lifestyle offers any wisdom for our society.

"Perched on a hill in Sonoita, Arizona is the Santa Rita Abbey. It overlooks the trees and the mountains as silence envelops the entire area. The chirping birds and the wind's song between the trees are the only sounds that pierce the silence. But get closer to the abbey and the sounds of song and prayer fill the air. They're from a group of cloistered contemplative nuns. Soon their stories will be on the big screen in a new documentary by local filmmaker Vicky Westover. For over four years, Westover worked on gaining their trust and respect."

-Tina Giuliano, KGUN-Tucson

Film Team Bios

Producer and Director Victoria Westover

Victoria Westover is a producer/director of films and film events and a film programmer. She worked in non-profit arts management for over 30 years. From 2004-2020 Victoria served as the Director of the Hanson FilmTV Institute at The University of Arizona. Her credits include the international feature film The Wall (Co-producer); the documentary Firelighters: Fire is Medicine (Producer); the documentary Almost an Island (Executive Producer); the documentary Hippie Family Values (Executive Producer); the US/Mexico feature 600 Miles - Best First Film, Berlin International Film Festival (Arizona Unit Producer); the documentary Apache 8 (Producer); the documentary The Music Never Ends (Executive Producer); the documentary Final Vows
(Producer/Director); and the documentary Wittig, Yes! (Producer). Victoria has served on committees, panels, and juries, including for Cinema Tropical; the AFI in Washington, D.C.; and the HBO/NALIP Documentary Awards. She is the co-director/co-programmer of Cinema Tucsón. Victoria is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance.

Producer Susan Slonaker

Susan Slonaker is a film producer and creative consultant with over 30 years of experience in development, production, post-production and strategic marketing. Her focus has been on helping both emerging and seasoned independent filmmakers to articulate and execute their visions at all stages of a project. Susan has held key creative roles in over 40 worldwide feature film releases, including Into the West (Co-Producer), The Lemon Sisters (Associate Producer), Strike it Rich (Associate Producer), A Wrinkle in Time (Creative Consultant). As Head of Production for Miramax, Susan oversaw creative and logistical elements of films including My Left Foot, The Thin Blue Line, and Cinema Paradiso. She has served on panels and boards for the Independent Feature Project, Grand Canyon University Digital Arts, Hanson FilmTV Institute and was recently adjunct Film faculty at the University of Arizona. Currently she is producing the feature documentaries Whose Land? O’odham Land! and Final Vows.

Producer Sande Zeig
Sande Zeig has worked in all aspects of the film business, including programming, exhibition, and distribution. She was the founder and President of Artistic License Films, a distributor of independent films based in New York City from 1994-2019. Zeig directed and produced several films, including the short Central Park, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, 1994; a feature The Girl, based on a short story by French writer Monique Wittig, 2001, which premiered at the Toronto and Berlin International Film Festivals; the documentary Soul Masters, 2008; Apache 8, broadcast on PBS, 2011; Sister Jaguar’s Journey, 2015, and The Living Saint of Thailand, 2019, about Venerable Mae Chee Sansanee Sthirasuta. Firelighters: Fire is Medicine was
broadcast on PBS in 2024. Zeig is currently in pre-production on Wittig,Yes! a documentary about her partner Monique Wittig, a leading figure in the 20th century lesbian feminist movement and a prize-winning French author.