If you were part of the audi­ence at the Embassy the­atre for the world pre­miere of Gar­den­ing with Soul dur­ing the Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val you will have wit­nessed some­thing quite extra­or­di­nary. A stand­ing ova­tion for a 92 year-old Island Bay res­i­dent and a speech by the diminu­tive woman, who start­ed by telling the clap­ping crowd, “I’m so glad you all like gar­den­ing so much.”

The film is now back by pop­u­lar demand with an inde­pen­dent nation­wide release and it’s a film view­ing expe­ri­ence every Welling­ton­ian should be encour­aged to embrace. Not only is Sis­ter Loy­ola Galvin (Gar­den­er of the Year in 2008 among oth­er things), an incred­i­ble gar­den­er who grows food for the Sis­ters in the Home of Com­pas­sion in Island Bay, she’s also an incred­i­bly wise human being who has helped set up com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens, car­ried out a per­ma­cul­ture course aged 80 and has lim­it­less ener­gy for every­one and every­thing.

As David Larsen writes in the Lis­ten­er: “…should you find your­self want­i­ng your faith in human­i­ty buoyed up a lit­tle, may I direct you to ‘Gar­den­ing with Soul’, a love­ly, gen­tle study of a year in the life of Sis­ter Loy­ola…. You will not encounter a more ener­getic per­son on film this year: a gen­er­a­tional icon of prag­mat­ic, cheer­ful, can-do Kiwi virtues.”

Direc­tor Jess Feast  has said she want­ed to “bot­tle her up and spread her around” and she cer­tain­ly has.

Cel­e­brate spring and check it out. I’ve been pot­ting up suc­cu­lents like a mad thing since watch­ing the film (no oth­er space here) so be warned. As one review­er said, “it may very well be life-chang­ing.”

Screen­ing around the region:

Waikanae — Shore­line Cin­e­ma

Para­pa­rau­mu — Cin­e­ma Gold

Pau­ata­hanui — Light­house

Petone  — Light­house

Welling­ton — Para­mount, Pent­house

Image by Dion Howard
Image by Dion Howard