St. Roz

Faith gives a woman a new lease on life but makes big trouble for her family in this comedy from director Gregory Sheppard. Minnie Barr (Victoria Snow) has built an empire out of helping women lose weight; she runs a chain of health spas and weight loss clinics and has become the figurehead of the Canadian fitness industry. However, Minnie's methods haven't done much to help her daughter Judy (Rachel Wilson), who is plus sized and can't seem to do anything to take off her extra pounds. One day, a statue of an obscure saint is delivered to a church in a working-class neighborhood in Hamilton, Ontario, and a hefty altar girl makes a startling discovery -- if she buys a holy candle for the saint, she loses a pound overnight. Word begins to spread about the saint, and soon women are lining up to buy a candle and say a prayer, including Judy. Making the miracle all the more remarkable is that no exercise or dieting is needed -- simply buy the candles, say the prayer and the pounds drop away. Judy and her peers are thrilled, and candle sales put the church in the black for a change, but it's bad news for Minnie, as the candles are helping to put her out of business. Wanting to help her often disapproving mother, Judy decides to do something that will help her and her mom at the same time -- steal the statue and keep it in hiding. St. Roz was an official selection at the 2010 Palm Beach International Film Festival.