Sylvania Franciscan Sister Judy Zielinski, a writer and producer for NewGroup Media in South Bend, Ind., received a Gabriel Award for her documentary “Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters Under European Communism.” A free screening of the film is slated for June 25 at 7 p.m. in the Franciscan Theatre and Conference Center of Lourdes College. (Photo courtesy of Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania)

The award, created in 1965 to “recognize outstanding artistic achievement in television and radio programming that entertains and enriches through a true vision of humanity and life,” was presented June 3 at the 45th annual Gabriel Award ceremony in New Orleans.

Sr. Zielinski, a writer and producer for NewMedia Group in South Bend, Ind., spent more than a year interviewing women who lived through this era and produced the documentary about the sisters of Eastern Europe who were imprisoned from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The one-hour film tells the stories of these survivors — now in their 70s, 80s and 90s — who lived through the various attempts of the Communist regimes to suppress religion and religious expression. 

One sister, who was a hospital administrator in Bucharest, Romania, was sent to prison for six years for letting a priest say Mass in her office.  Another was sentenced to 18 years of hard labor on trumped up charges of treason.   A third was imprisoned as a college student for attending Catholic youth meetings and spent seven years in Siberia working on a female construction crew building houses and carrying heavy logs.

Almost 60 sisters were interviewed in cities ranging from Warsaw, Poland, and Budapest, Hungary, to Bratislava, Slovakia, Bucharest, Romania, and L’viv, Ukraine.  Additional filming was done in the Toledo area using Sylvania Franciscan sisters as actors.

A free screening of “Interrupted Lives” is slated for June 25 at 7 p.m. in the Franciscan Theatre and Conference Center of Lourdes College on the motherhouse grounds of the Sisters of St. Francis.

Sr. Zielinski also is to talk about how the film was produced, what it means to her as a Catholic sister and why it is important to tell this little-known story.

Photos and a 6-minute trailer can be found at www.interruptedlives.org.