If you survey the landscape of American film festivals, you’ll find many cater to all sorts of obscure subcultures, along the lines of “Maoist left-handed Irish-American film festival,” but remarkably few (such as American Film Renaissance and the Heartland Film Festival) are friendly to conservatives, let alone religious conservatives. The new John Paul II International Film Festival seems designed to help fill that niche. It will run from October 29 to November 7 in Miami. It takes its inspiration from JPII’s 1999 Letter to Artists:
Mine is an invitation to rediscover the depth of the spiritual and religious dimension which has been typical of art in its noblest forms in every age. It is with this in mind that I appeal to you, artists of the written and spoken word, of the theatre and music, of the plastic arts and the most recent technologies in the field of communication. I appeal especially to you, Christian artists: I wish to remind each of you that, beyond functional considerations, the close alliance that has always existed between the Gospel and art means that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man.
The festival will be showing both feature and short films. Most of the films appear to have religious or humanitarian, though not necessarily Catholic, elements. I should confess that I’m not a disinterested observer, since the festival will show The Birth of Freedom, which I had the privilege of producing along with a very talented group of colleagues (here and here.) You can view the trailer below.