Thy Will Be Done
'Thy Will' gently explores gender identity and religion
By Ty Burr
Globe Staff / September 10, 2010
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/09/10/thy_will_be_done_gently_explores_gender_identity_and_religion/As documentaries go, "Thy Will Be Done'' is neither evenhanded nor a work of advocacy journalism. Instead, Arlington-based filmmaker Alice Dungan Bouvrie has created a sympathetic, almost too well-mannered portrait of a unique individual — a transsexual woman who hopes to become an ordained Presbyterian minister — and the loving, tightknit community that surrounds and supports her.
Shot on video, much of the hourlong film is taken up with the long journey of Sara Herwig from her upbringing in Wichita, Kan., as a devout young man named Stephen, through seminary studies in the Boston area, marriage, parenthood, and the final coming to terms with who she truly is. After having gender reassignment surgery in 2001, Herwig came back to the church through Waltham's First Presbyterian, an inclusive haven for the LGBT community (among others) overseen by the Rev. Jean Southard.
