Culture Wars:
Catholic Film Festival vs. Hollywood Scandals Catholic Film Festival Provides Welcome Contrast to Hollywood Scandals and SqualorThomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
As Hollywood wallows in ever more sordid sex scandals, an international Catholic Film Festival in Rome has awarded a series of films for their uplifting themes, artistic prowess and positive contribution to culture.
In its eighth annual awards ceremony last week, the Mirabile Dictu Catholic Film Festival underscored the contribution of Catholic actors and filmmakers that strive to create great cinema that inspires and elevates, rather than degrading.
This year’s winners included “A Man of God,” a documentary on the life of Father Władysław Bukowiński, apostle of Kazakhstan and a prisoner of Soviet labor camps; “Come and See,” an innovative black-and-white short film recorded without sound; and “Luz de Soledad,” a movie about a group of Spanish religious sisters in the midst of revolutions, epidemics and religious persecution.
Like other such events, the festival grants awards in several categories: best short film, best documentary, best director and best film. For this year’s festival, more than 1,000 candidates submitted movies for judging, which were later narrowed down to 12 candidates vying for the “Silver Fish,” a sculpture that recalls the first symbol of Christianity (ἰχθύς).
The nominees for best film included “Saint Bridget of Sweden,” from American director Fabio Carini; “Fatima, the Last Mystery,” from Spaniard Andrés Garrigó; and “Ignatius of Loyola: Soldier, Sinner, Saint,” from Philippine director Paolo Dy.
The award was given to the film on Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish founder of the Jesuit order, which highlights the dramatic conversion from his life as a libertine soldier to that of a formidable Christian missionary.
Each day more stories emerge from the murky Hollywood underworld of predatory producers, actors and filmmakers, leaving the impression that the cinematographic world is one of near absolute corruption and filth.
In October, Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson said that the sexual abuse and harassment scandal surrounding disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is just “the top of a very particular iceberg” in Hollywood’s overall culture.
“I didn’t know about these things, but they don’t surprise me at all, and they’re endemic to the system anyway,” Thompson said in an interview. “What I find sort of extraordinary is that this man is at the top of a very particular iceberg. I don’t think you can describe him as a ‘sex addict,’ he’s a predator.”
The Mirabile Dictu (Latin for “it is wonderful to say”) festival offers a contrary message: that cinema and filmmaking can be put at the service of universal moral values and positive cultural models.
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