Crisis Pregnancies the focus of BUMP

A press release from Yellow Line Media

Yellow Line Studio announces the premiere of BUMP+, a web series that follows three women facing crisis pregnancies. The pilot is scheduled to launch on Friday, January 22, 2010. Thirteen episodes will follow in February and March; and the final cliffhanger is so unpredictable, even the writers and producers don't know how the series will end.
From Juno and Bella to Glee and Desperate Housewives, a woman's right to choose has been explored across the media landscape. What makes BUMP+ different? We're letting the viewers decide how our characters' stories will end. We've opened the official website to comments and invited people to share their personal stories. Our team will craft the final episodes, including the ultimate decision about each pregnancy, based on audience feedback. This isn't a moral or political statement - it's an experiment to see if story can succeed where nearly four decades of angry rhetoric and political posturing have failed.



That experiment is already underway at www.bumptheshow.com. A trailer for the pilot has attracted several comments and personal stories from viewers; and the YouTube, Facebook and Twitter following is growing quickly; and as someone with a strong commitment to quality, thought provoking entertainment, we'd like to invite you and your audience to be part of it. For more information, or to schedule an interview with members of the BUMP+ creative team, please contact me personally using the email address or phone number below, or visit our website

The Butterfly Circus" wins Doorpost films contest!!

Go to Doorpost Films to see this award-winning and deeply moving film which will challenge your views of what a circus can be.

Young Independent filmmaker seeks funding for film on chaplain in Vietnam

Fr Wauck on "Angels and Demons"

Fr Wauck of Opus Dei, which received much bad publicity in "The Da Vinci Code" tells Zenit that Dan Brown is 'cashing in' on Catholicism. The blend of history, religion Brown includes in his novels can be found nowhere else but in the Vatican.

Dan Brown reminds me of James Joyce who left Ireland and the Catholic Church, yet he never wrote about anything else. Could he be resisting the baying of the Hound of Heaven close at his heels?

Here is Fr Wauck's list of scientific advances supported by the Church, in response to Dan Brown's accusation that the Church was the suppressor of scientific knowledge:
"Universities are an invention of the Church. Copernicus was a Roman Catholic cleric, and he dedicated his book on the heliocentric universe to the Pope. The calendar we use today is the Gregorian Calendar, because it was promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII, who was working with the best astronomers and mathematicians of his time. Galileo himself always remained a Catholic, and his two daughters were nuns. One of the greatest Italian astronomers of the 19th century was a Jesuit priest, Angelo Secchi. The father of modern genetics, Gregor Mendel, was a Catholic monk. The creator of the "Big Bang" theory was a Belgian priest, Georges Lemaitre."
And this list leaves out my favorite saintly scientist, Dr Jerome Lejeune, who discovered the cause of Down syndrome and is up for canonization.

Read the rest of the interview here.

HT Spirit Daily

Happy First Anniversary Catholic Media Review

Here is the article which started it all.
It's the reason why last year i just HAD to start this blog; to create reliably Catholic film reviews.
Now, one year later the reviewers at the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting have given thumbs up to another pro-homosexual movie, "Milk". Either the USCCB is deaf to the complaints of the faithful laypeople and outspoken bishops like Archbishops Chaput and Burke (see Life Site News article) or they agree with their views, which are out of step with Catholic teaching.
Whichever it is, Catholic Media Review more often than not, beats the USCCB Office in Google searches where 'Catholic review ' is added to the film's title, even though we aren't on the USCCB's payroll, we are certainly performing a service to the Catholic community.
Several of our reviews have been re-posted on secular media outlets like IMBD, Reuters,
USA Today, The Chicago Sun-Times. We have been asked to post our reviews on Catholic Online, Catholic Exchange, and Catholic.net; three of Catholicism's top websites. A blurb from my review of Kent Gilges' book, "A Grace Given" was listed on the back cover, between that of George Weigel and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Asociation. Comments from Jeff Miller and I were used on Ascension Press' advertisements of the book "Heaven's Song; Sexual Love as it was Meant to Be" by Christopher West, surrounding the remarks of Archbishop Chaput. We are profoundly humbled by our remarks having such auspcious company.
I have been sent numerous books, DVDs, film clips, screening invitations, and press junket invitations to obtain our reviews on upcoming productions. I have a stack of good Catholic books on my nightstand thanks to word getting out that we do high-quality, reliably Catholic media reviews.

This photograph of the church in front of the Hollywood sign was taken by Wiliam Moseley who portrays Peter Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia; Prince Caspian during an interview I did last December (I will be publishing it shortly). We remarked on this extraordinary view from the hotel room we were in. Peter, an engaging young man, whom I like immediately, had been explaining how he was taking a photography course, so I asked him if he wouldn't mind taking the photo. He was gracious enough to be flattered when I told him I was going to use it for this blog.
Catholic Media Review is becoming one of the respected voices in the new media, by both Catholic and secular media.
Please God, may we accept this success and any further honors with humility, and never forget Whom we serve; our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, His Immaculate Mother and Holy Mother Church. And our readers, who count on us to tell the truth with flair and clarity.
If we do forget, will you, our readers, promise to take us down a peg?

The "R" word in "Tropic Thunder"

The leadership of The Arc, a group of communities for those with intellectual disabilities will be pre-screening the upcoming Dreamworks Comedy "Tropic Thunder". In the film about spoiled actors filming a "Rambo" like film on location, Ben Stiller plays an actor who is rehearsing a role as a retarded man in a film, "Simple Jack" whose tag line is, "Once upon a time. . there was a retard".
Ben Stiller should know better. Stiller who wrote the screenplay and directed the film, should know better than to base a film gag on mocking the disabled. I am deeply disappointed that Hollywood, who bends over backward to be politically correct, could callously offend so many. Ben, if you are so hard up for comedy, leave the screenwriting to those who can do funny without hurting anyone.
Read Patricia Bauer's entire column here.

UPDATE: The viral website of Tropic Thunder has been temporarily shut down pending a meeting between film officials and advocates for the mentally disabled. I will keep you posted about whether the film is changed to be less offensive.
UPDATE #2
BAD NEWS From The Arc
A small number of disability advocates was able to screen the film on Friday, August 8. Their assessment of the film was that it was far worse than anything they could have anticipated. According to David Tolleson, the Executive Director of the National Down Syndrome Congress who attended the screening, "it provides real ammunition for cruelty" especially for the film's target audience of adolescent males. "Not only is the Simple Jack character highly central to the film's plot, it is portrayed in the most demeaning way," according to Tolleson. Watch the controversial scenes here (viewer discretion nudity, profanity, tasteless humor, blood and gore, racial religious and ethnic slurs. . did I miss anything?) Stiller sure didn't!
In perhaps the single most offensive scene in the film, Matthew McConaughey, who plays a Hollywood agent, speaks to the film's main character who wants to adopt a child. "Well, at least you still have a choice. I'm stuck with mine," states McConaughey while pointing to a photograph of his teenage son who appears to have an intellectual disability.
There has been mounting outrage from the disability community as the film's content is gradually becoming known.For excellent coverage of the issue, see Patricia Bauer's Column and related posts. Hundreds of comments have been posted on the blog expressing outrage about the movie. Representatives of a number of national disability organizations, including The Arc's Executive Director Peter V. Berns, met with DreamWorks and Paramount studio executives in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, August 6. The purpose of the meeting was to express concerns, request a viewing of the film, and discuss possible solutions.
Take Action
Depending on negotiations with the studio executives over the weekend, The Arc and its coalition partners may be calling on its membership to take appropriate action. Such action includes a protest at the premier in Los Angeles on August 11 and/or national boycott when the film is released on August 13.
Stay tuned......
To prove that I don't want an absolute ban the portrayal of the mentally disabled in film, I enjoyed the irreverent comedy, "The Ringer", after an enthusiastic endorsement from the National Down Syndrome Society. Patricia Bauer comments on in "The Ringer" this New York Times article.
The difference between this film and "Tropic Thunder" is that the characters in "The Ringer" are seen as dignified human beings not pathetic stereotypes, they poke fun at themselves and the foolish stereotypes about the disabled, so you find yourself laughing with them, not at them.

Gail Williamson head of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, talked the producers of "The Ringer" into casting actors such as the hysterical Ed Barbarell who has Down syndrome in the film which was about the Special Olympics. The producers were actually going to fake DS with masks, because they thought there were no actors with DS up to the parts. They must have forgotten the hit TV series of the 1990's "Life Goes On" which was written around Chris Burke, an actor with Down sydndrome.
Chris Burke, and Ed Barbarell are excellent role models for individuals with intellectual challenges, and they both have a great sense of humor.
UPDATE: The protests held at today's opening of the film garned a lot of media attention. Here is my post at Causa Nostrae Laetitiae on who's paying attention, and how to join the protest.

A Call for Pro-life Films

There's a new kid in town . . . opening in San Francisco on March 7, 2008: the Cinema Vita Film Festival. "

The Cinema Vita Film Festival has been established to encourage young, emerging filmmakers and to showcase movies about contemporary issues concerning the meaning and value of life. Coordinated by the San Francisco Archdiocesan Office of Public Policy, the Oakland Diocesan Respect Life Ministry, Marriage for Life, and Ignatius Press, the festival is based on the recognition that art, especially the medium of film, shapes the popular imagination and has a tremendous influence on culture." (read more)

Inspired by the success of Bella, the organizers are putting their money where their hearts are and have established three categories for submission of 3-5 minute, original "visionary works that focus on the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death". The categories are (1) high school (2) college and (3) open classification. EVEN BETTER the prize in each category is $250 AND a Canon HG10 High Definition Camcorder (value $1100). You can read the submission criteria here. Entries must be postmarked by February 14.

The winning films will be shown at the festival on March 7, 2008 at the Delancy Street Theater in downtown San Francisco, along with the award-winning feature film After the Truth, a provocative look at a fictional trial of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious Angel of Death at Auschwitz.

Via Deal Hudson.

Cross-posted at Catholic Fire.