{"id":50,"date":"2009-10-03T17:05:51","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T17:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/10\/heres-a-first-a-film-festival-named-for-a-pope.html"},"modified":"2009-10-03T17:05:51","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T17:05:51","slug":"heres-a-first-a-film-festival-named-for-a-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/10\/heres-a-first-a-film-festival-named-for-a-pope.html","title":{"rendered":"Here’s a first: a film festival named for a pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

A decade after Pope John Paul’s historic letter to artists<\/a>, a group of artists in Florida is putting on a film festival<\/a> that celebrates the human spirit: <\/p>\n

Pope John Paul II’s legacy serves as an inspiration to people of all
\nfaiths and backgrounds, and organizers of a new Florida film festival
\nin his honor hope it, too, will reach everyone. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

“It
\nis imperative for our community to make this festival their own,” said
\nLaura Alvarado, one of the founders of the 10-day festival, set for
\nsouth Florida in late October and early November. The founders have
\nsought involvement from religious and nondenominational organizations
\nand places of worship, including Catholic churches, Jewish temples,
\nschools and businesses, she said. “If John Paul II was known as ‘the
\npeople’s pope,’ then it is our goal to make this ‘the people’s
\nfestival.’ <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The John Paul II International Film
\nFestival, originally set for the last weekend of October, is now
\nextended to Thursday, Oct. 29, through Saturday, Nov. 7. The festival
\nwas conceived by Alvarado and two other young adults who connect with
\nthe late pope, an actor and playwright in his youth, through their
\nfaith and artistic passions. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

“(We) all feel that the
\narts are the greatest way to deliver a message,” said Alvarado, who
\nalong with her fianc\u00e9, Frank Brennan, and friend Rafael Anrrich are the
\nmoving force behind the film festival. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

She said the three of them believe many of today’s films are lacking “truth, beauty and love in its purest form.”  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can find more at the Florida Catholic<\/a> link.  You can also visit the festival’s website<\/a> for more details. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A decade after Pope John Paul’s historic letter to artists, a group of artists in Florida is putting on a film festival that celebrates the human spirit: Pope John Paul II’s legacy serves as an inspiration to people of all faiths and backgrounds, and organizers of a new Florida film festival in his honor hope…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\nHere's a first: a film festival named for a pope - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/10\/heres-a-first-a-film-festival-named-for-a-pope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here's a first: a film festival named for a pope - 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}