The festival strives to embrace, encourage and empower every young person to become the voice of hope and solidarity.

"You, young people, are the architects of the future, signs of hope. And we have great hope in all of you. With you, we want to dream and build a better tomorrow," said Salesians head, Fr Angel Fernandex Artime to potential paricipants.

"With your creativity, you can truly help to change the world. I invite you, come and participate in this festival of short films. This is your festival, come and let us move the world with hope," he said.

Conceived in December 2020 and premiering last week, the first annual Don Bosco Global Film Festival received 1,686 short film submissions from 116 countries.

Chosen by an international jury, the best films were streamed last week in 135 different countries.

The film festival sought short film submissions from filmmakers aged 15 to 30. The films could be in any genre within five categories: One-Minute Short Films, 10-Minute Short Films, One-Minute Animated Shorts, 10-Minute Shorts and Music Videos.

Entrants competed for the top spots in all five categories, which awarded prizes amounting to 100,000 euros. A diverse jury of professional filmmakers from around the world was lined up to judge the films.

In addition, films were awarded cash prizes in categories such as global bests, continental bests and category bests - such as narrative, screenplay, sound design and editing.

In addition, there were individual awards for best actor and actress, best writer and best director.

The festival was organized by the Salesians of Don Bosco, whose aim was to create "a world-class film festival platform to showcase ... young creative filmmaking talents."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Salesian Institutions of Higher Education

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The festival runs from 18 to 22 March.

The theme is Me Reretau - Be in Balance. It offers stories that seek harmony in an increasingly discordant world.

The seventh annual festival will present over 120 films and 69 events from 92 indigenous nations while hosting filmmakers from communities around the world.

"The programme is packed with New Zealand and southern hemisphere premieres of shorts, features and documentary films that show the exceptional storytelling of indigenous peoples from across the globe," MFF2020 festival director Libby Hakaraia said.

Young Maori film-makers have programmed a Maoriland Rangatahi Film Festival which will show short films made in January during Our Lens workshop in Taiwan and Sápmi.

The festival will open with the premiere of Kiwi-sized blockbuster The Legend of Baron To'a, directed by Tainui filmmaker Kiel McNaughton

The festival will also feature non-screen-based artistry including:

• The visual arts gallery Toi Matarau.
• Tamoko, carvers, weavers, and jewellers will be working around the Maoriland Hub
• A keynote address will be given at Rangiatea church
• NATIVE Minds a series of interactive discussions with guest speakers from New Zealand and abroad will examine how indigenous thinking shapes our existence and our view of the world.
• Maoriland Tech Creative Hub (M.A.T.C.H) will also present virtual reality demonstrations.
• Filmmakers in attendance will be put into groups to plan and produce a film in just 72 hours.

In 2019 the Maoriland Film Festival was attended by 12,500 visitors.

Click here to see the full programme

Click here to purchase tickets. Or call 0508 iTICKET (484 253)

Source

• Supplied
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: festhome.com

Critics say their performance is a "masterclass" in acting.

The Two Popes is a Netflix movie written by novelist and screenwriter Anthony McCarten.

Born and raised in New Plymouth, McCarten attended Francis Douglas Memorial College and went on to study for an Arts degree at Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied creative writing with Bill Manhire.

McCarten is best known for writing the biographical films The Theory of Everything (Stephen Hawking), Darkest Hour (Winston Churchill), and Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen).

Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign and subsequent transfer of power to the more progressive Cardinal Bergoglio was the inspiration for director Fernando Meirelles.

Facing scandal and self-doubt, Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and the future successor to Rome.

He reveals a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.

Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt and forgiveness.

The two very different men confront elements from their pasts to find common ground and forge a future for the Church.

The Two Popes is not a straight drama. There is an element of comedy.

The endearing chemistry between the characters and the movie's breezy tone often clashes with the subject at hand.

The two characters exchange jokes and rib each other.

And the Cardinals make their way into the Vatican for the papal elections to the tune of Abba's Dancing Queen.

Meirelles said during the intro of the film at the world premiere that he was interested in Pope Francis because of his progressiveness and social activism.

"I feel that there's something out of place in the world," he said.

He praises Pope Francis for "building bridges" during a time when certain leaders (he didn't name names) are more interested in dividing people with "physical walls, economic walls and technical walls."

Source

• variety.com
• indiewire.com
• thewrap.com
• en.wikipedia.org
• Image: thewrap.com

A collection of silent films was played with a live organ accompaniment at St John the Evangelist Anglican Church last Saturday. Read more

He says he has a deep affection for New Zealand.

"I've got the time to enjoy the process of releasing this movie, so I'm going to enjoy being able to talk to actors, the public and guilds there.

"I wouldn't mind having an extra day to drive around the North Island though, it's an area I haven't explored yet."

Davis says he has been helped immensely by the support of the movie's acting coach - New Zealander Miranda Harcourt.

And Harcourt isn't his only connection to New Zealand.

He has a New Zealand-born wife, and Jane Campion helped give him his big break as a commercial director.

She asked if he would be interested in doing the TV series Top of the Lake.

"I read it and loved it, I just really related to it. Then we spoke about the project as a family and decided it could be really great, plus we'd get to move to New Zealand, which we love".

Mary Magdalene stars Rooney Mara as Magdalene and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus.

This movie might help clear the name of one of the most misrepresented figures in history.

A lot of people think Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.

But there is no reference anywhere in the Bible to Mary Magdalene ever being a prostitute.

There is no reference to her even being a sinner.

The only suggestion that Mary Magdalene was anything other than wholly virtuous is in the Gospels of Luke and Mark where Jesus is referred to as ridding her of "seven demons".

And many scholars believe the latter wasn't even in the original text but was added sometime in the second century.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• express.co.uk
• Image: ew.com

Fed up with the materialism of Christmas, Santa runs away to New Zealand for a summer holiday.

When two Kiwi kids figure out who he is, they have to find a way to get him back to the North Pole in time for Christmas.

"It appeals to all ages really. It's got a nice moralistic tale as well as being entertaining," said the director of photography Donald Duncan.

"Kiwi Christmas, New Zealand's first Christmas movie, will appeal to international audiences because of how different it is to other Christmas movies," he said.

"It is a really summery film.

"I think that's going to be one of its great selling points on the international market, that northern hemisphere people are so attuned to the fact that Christmas is at winter time.

"I think that will give it a real intrigue factor. It screams jandals and shorts and barbecues."

Duncan said the film featured comedy and emotion and he was happy with how it had turned out.

Kiwi Christmas was shot over a six-week period at a beach north of Auckland and in a strawberry-packing shed in Riverhead.

Veteran Finnish actor Kari Vaananen (Night on Earth, Leningrad Cowboys Go America) will play Santa with top New Zealand actors Sia Trokenheim (Everything we Loved, Beyond the Known World) and Xavier Horan (The Dead Lands, The Dark Horse) taking other lead roles.

The two children will be played by newcomers Samuel Clark and Luca Andrews. The supporting cast includes well-known actors Troy Kingi, Laura Daniel, Wesley Dowdell, Will Hall and Ian Mune.

Watch the Trailer

Check out when it is coming to a theatre near you

Source

• Stuff.
• NZFilm
• Image: Stuff

Have a look at the list and decide for yourself if he is right.

Many Catholics are rightly upset about the scandalous anti-Catholic new HBO show called "The Young Pope."

But Hollywood has been attacking the Church for years. I went back and looked up some movies in which the pope and the Church were portrayed. What I came up with was not encouraging. Continue reading

The movie which stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn is the second-most commercially successful movie of 2016.

"This despite—or perhaps because—it has offended all ends of the social spectrum," says film critic Tom Teodorczuk

The poster has been put up on bus stops all round Auckland shows women "flipping the bird."

PTA chairwoman Annette Fale said she was appalled that that particular poster was posted on the school's bus stop.

"It just paints a bad picture of mothers," she said. "I don't think mums behave that way, especially in front of their children, so why is it appropriate to put that poster up at a school's bus stop?"

"Every day, student's of St Mary's line up at that bus stop and the poster is visible to everyone."

"It's not a comfortable conversation to have with your kids if they saw it and started asking questions."

On Monday Maungakiekie-Tamaki councillor Denise Krum said she had contacted Auckland Transport about the poster.

"I'm always up for a laugh at the movies but little kids don't need to see imagery like that next to the word 'mom' outside their school," she said.

Auckland Transport media relations manager Mark Hannan said contractor Adshel had been told to take down the "unacceptable" advertisement as it was in breach of the council-controlled organisation's advertising policy.

"We have ordered Adshel to remove the advertisement and they will be doing that today. We have also asked them to check other shelters in Auckland and to remove the content."

Adshel general manager Nick Vile confirmed the posters were removed on Tuesday morning.

Bad Moms, the girl-power comedy in which Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn toss their kids to one side and get up to some raunchy antics, has grossed $86 million and is a triumph for fledging studio STX Entertainment.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• heastst.com
• Image: tatic.kidspot.com.au

To reach audiences beyond the Christian churchgoers that generally propel the genre, some producers of faith-based films are ramping up the star power and tamping down the evangelical messages.

The latest example is "Miracles From Heaven," starring Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah, which tells the true story of a 9-year-old Texas girl who inexplicably recovers from an incurable condition after surviving a 30-foot fall.

Among the film's producers are pastor T.D. Jakes and preacher DeVon Franklin — the team behind 2014's $100 million hit "Heaven is for Real" — who say they aim to make movies for all audiences, not just religious ones.

"I think sometimes when people hear 'faith-based,' to them that is code for preachy, that is code for more medicine, and it's also sometimes code for lower quality, lower budgeted," Franklin said in a recent interview.

"It's the way people think when you use labels that is the barrier," Jakes said. "It's not necessarily the film, but the image that comes up in people's minds … It suggests a discrimination that was not intended. We didn't do this film just for people of faith. We did this film for everybody."

Continue Reading

After moving to Hollywood to pursue a career in films he returned to the Catholic faith of his youth. Verastegui then co-founded Metanoia Films with Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and Leo Severino.

In 2006, the company released its first film, "Bella," which was directed by Monteverde and starred VerÁstegui; it won the "People's Choice Award" at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival.

Metanoia Films' second film, "Little Boy", opens tomorrow in theaters nationwide. It stars Jakob Salvati, David Henrie, Kevin James, Emily Watson, Ted Levine, Michael Rapaport, Ali Landry and Ben Chaplin, and is distributed by Open Road Films.

(You can read Catholic World Report's review of the movie on the CWR blog.)

Verastegui spoke with Catholic World Report this week about his career, working in Hollywood, the success of "Bella", the making of "Little Boy", and the necessity of faith in every aspect of life.

CWR: When "Bella" was released in 2006, you said, "Hollywood doesn't belong to the studios. Hollywood belongs to God." How would you describe "Hollywood"? And what have you learned about it over the years?

Verastegui: Hollywood is a great platform that gives you an opportunity to send a message through art to the whole world; it's like a megaphone—when you speak through a megaphone, like the megaphone of Hollywood, the whole world listens to you. But at the same time that can be very dangerous because anyone can go there and say whatever they want, but it does not mean that any message that comes forward is truth. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: The Washington Times

If you had been an MP 10 years ago, would you have milked your expenses for what they were worth?

And if you and your family faced a threat, would you protect them or save yourself?

We all like to think that in such situations our basic decency would shine through, but we can never know.

This is the central theme of Force Majeure, in which an avalanche suddenly threatens to engulf a Swedish family enjoying lunch on the terrace of a plush ski resort.

The husband and father, Tomas, flunks his test. Instead of trying to shield his wife and children he runs away, not forgetting his precious smartphone.

In the aftermath, several characters try to excuse him.

"In situations like these you're not always aware of what you do," says one. "You try to survive."

Aristotle would not have been satisfied by this or the other excuses offered in Tomas's defence. He would have insisted that in those few seconds, Tomas revealed his character.

Aristotle's insight was that we rarely have the time or opportunity to sit down and think about what the best thing to do is before acting. Indeed, a good person does not have to do this.

To become good you have to practise being good by cultivating the habits of goodness. Only then will you find yourself doing the right thing almost automatically.

If you practise thinking about what you want to be and doing what is necessary to become that person, when you are tested you will be able to do the right thing without thinking. Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: Sharmill Films

Ted Neeley, the original lead in "Jesus Christ Superstar" is back four decades on as the son of God in the hit musical in Rome, and hopes Pope Francis will be in the audience.

The pontiff will be "just down the street and we're hoping he's going to come visit us and see the show. I think he's a wonderful, wonderful man," an enthusiastic 70-year-old Neely told AFP between rehearsals of the world-famous rock opera.

The Texan musician and actor has appeared in other works, including Quentin Tarantino's 2013 film "Django Unchained", but his heart still lies in the role of 33-year-old Christ, which "gets better and better each time", he said. Continue reading

The original "Jesus" - now 70 - is back on stage]]> 57036 https://cathnews.co.nz/2014/02/11/real-philomena/ Mon, 10 Feb 2014 18:30:03 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=54117

"I was a bit of a dumb cluck in the film," the real Philomena says, chuckling. "Some of those things I didn't say. But it had to bring a bit of laughter into it. Because it's so sad, you know." Even today, there's a lingering stigma about women who choose to place their children for Read more