Written and directed by Joe Balass
Québec, Canada, 2012, English with French subtitles / 71 min
Director of photography Joe Balass/ Editor Annie Jean / produced by Joe Balass/ Compass Productions / Distribution Les Films du 3 mars

Despite what the white Santa Claus beard, heart-shaped glasses and oversized cornette might indicate, Mish is no crackpot. Practically an institution, in 1979 he was a founding member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a world-wide organization made up of 400 activist “nuns.” Under the delightful pseudonym Sister Missionary P. Delight, aka Sister Iamosama DeLite the Sodomite/Soami, he was perhaps the most visible face of one of the biggest gay-rights movements in history. Along with his acolytes, Sister Hysterectoria and Sister Clara Cum Passionata, he was front row centre in a movement that began in seething ’80s San Francisco and whose contributions to society are still felt today. Now living in the American Deep South, he invites us into his world in the middle of the forest, filled with mad clutter, radical faeries, genuine faith and a still-heartfelt militancy. Under the tender, watchful eye of Joe Balass (Nana, George and Me, Baghdad Twist), who observed them for seven years, he and his community live according to a motto that can’t help but appeal to all of us: “Spread universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt!”— Helen Faradji/ Catalogue du FNC