Miami’s John Paul II International Film Festival was encouraged by the Vatican’s announcement that John Paul II, who inspired interreligious dialogue and helped break down communism in his Native Poland, is currently pending approval for beatification. The interfaith film festival, taking place February 17th – 26th is further proof that the late pope’s legacy continues to move generations to use their God-given talents to send a message of peace and humanity in their community and the world at large.

“The announcement could not have come at a better time” stated the organizers of the John Paul II International Film Festival, modeled after his artistic and humanitarian ideals. “Not only because of our Film Festival but because of the great message of hope it will bring to individuals all over the world who followed John Paul II’s life.”

The John Paul II International Film Festival’s closing night film, Nine Days that Changed the World, showcases the late Pope’s social influence in Poland’s solidarity movement. Professor George Weigel, the author of the best-selling biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope,  once said the late pope “…was the great defender of universal human rights in our time and proposed that ‘rights’ understood according to the natural moral law could be a kind of grammar by which a fractured world could engage in real conversation.” 

“Our team has been praying for his future canonization since we founded the Film Festival. The mere fact that our hero will be beatified is a miracle in itself,” said Frank William Brennan, one of the festival’s Founders and Directors.

The date of the late pontiff’s beatification has been set for May 1st, 2011. A day that is known by Catholics as “Divine Mercy Sunday.”

The John Paul II International Film Festival returns to South Florida for its 10-day second edition from February 17-26. The 2011 festival, themed The Mystery of Love, will screen its films in Florida International University, the Dave & Mary Alper JCC’s Robert Russel Theater, and the brand new Coral Gables Art Cinema.

For more information about the JP2IFF, visit www.jp2filmfestival.org or call 305.418.0939

“From now on it is only through a conscious choice and through a deliberate policy that humanity can survive.” -Pope John Paul II

Hello ya’ll! Many blessings and greetings from the JP2 crew! Hopefully, for  our fellow Catholics, you and your families are already preparing for our beautiful upcoming advent season. As for my brother’s and sister’s of different faiths, I pray that you all are getting ready for this incredible season full of unity, culture and celebration.

If you noticed, I began my entry with a wonderful quote by the late John Paul II.  I felt that in many ways, it is the theme for the upcoming events for this season and for this festival.  We forget to realize what a difference we make when we participate in events like this festival to save and unify our human race. Personally, I’d like to thank you all for stepping up or supporting us because without you, this movement would not be able to live out this quote.

Our 2^nd year is four months away and practically right around the corner, so don’t forget to note it on your calendars, February 17-28, 2011. Volunteers are still welcome and needed. Interested? Check it out: http://jp2filmfestival.com/get_involved/volunteer.html

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS! We have two HUGE events coming up in December to help fund and create awareness for our 2^nd year. Do to popular demand the festival will bring back both award winning films The Mighty Macs, December 3^rd, 2010 and The Human Experience, December 17^th, 2010.  Both events will be held at the FIU Modesto Maidique Campus RBD1100 at 8pm.

Just in case you need a little brain shower to re-fresh your memory, The Mighty Macs is a 2009 film based off the true story of Cathy Rush a former 1970’s basketball coach at Immaculata College (a small, all-girls catholic university.) Though the school is suffering financially and her team misses core essentials such as a gym and uniforms, Rush finds the courage to steer the girls to their first annual Championship.

The Human Experience is a 2008 documentary about a band of brothers who travel around the world in search for answers to burning questions: who am I? Who is man? And why do we search for meaning? From being Homeless on the streets of New York City, visiting Orphans and disabled children in Peru, to the forgotten lepers in Africa, these boys tell the incredible story of how they were awakened by real life encounters  that showed them the beauty of  the human person and the resilience of the human spirit.

Remember to set the date and purchase tickets on our website!!! We truly cannot wait to see you all there!

When:  The Might Macs-December 3^rd, 2010

The Human Experience-December 17^th, 2010

Where: FIU Modesto Maidique Campus RBD1100 at 8pm SHARP!

Take care! Hope to see you there! Blessings!

Hello Everyone!!! I hope you’ve  had a wonderful year!

I don’t  know about you but I’m soooo excited for the holiday season! The JP2 crew is preparing a great season  filled with events and activities for our community. With that said,  Last year the John Paul II International Film Festival was honored to host the World Premiere of the incredible and uplifting film The Mighty Macs as the festival’s Opening Night Film.

The “Macs” received two of the festival’s five recognitions last year, going home with the People’s Festival Award and Reel Rose Award for Best Feature. Now, in light of the festival’s upcoming second edition, The Mystery of Love, the inspirational “Mighty Macs” is coming back for more! Join me and the JP2 crew for a much-demanded special screening of the film that touched the hearts of its viewers and stay after to meet its acclaimed director Mr. Tim Chambers.

When: December 3, 2010 at 8pm

Where: FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus’ College of Law, RBD1100.

To purchase tickets, visit https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/28275.

Looking for more information? You can email us at info@jp2fimfestival.com or drop us a line at 786.246.5380. Hope to see you there!!!

Can’t wait to see you all there! Take Care! God Bless you =)

I am currently reading John Paul II’s “Love and Responsibility”. Our theme for the 2011 year is perfectly integrated with JP2′s insights on love. He says that authentic love means rejoicing when the other is rejoicing and suffering when the other is suffering. When I read this I said, “Well yeah I understand the suffering part, but what about the rejoicing.” Then it hit me. Love is not just trying to get someone out of a hole by throwing them a rope. It is physically crawling  into the hole with them  and climbing out together. Our Lord suffered with us to the point of death on a cross. He also rejoiced with us. Every time I read the Gospels I try to pinpoint a time when Jesus is smiling or laughing, even though it is not written in. Our Lord was not an anti-social droid. He was alive within the community and the nation of Israel. He rejoiced when others rejoiced. In the Wedding Feast at Cana, Christ restored the wine for the bride and groom. This must have been a sincere moment of happiness for him. Even though he knew that this public miracle would bring him out of the hidden area of his life into his ministry, the service which he rendered for the wedded couple was a period in which he rejoiced as they were rejoicing. This is authentic love and I imagine that he was laughing and smiling the whole time. It comes to the point where the suffering becomes a sacrifice and at certain times even the rejoicing is a sacrifice. Christ sacrificed his hidden mission from God in order to rejoice with the bride and groom and restore the very love which had been missing in marriage since Original Justice. Yes he restored wine, but wine is most often symbolized for love in the gospels.

As 2011 begins to creep up on us I pray that we can humble ourselves and ask for our wine to be restored. In the purely artistic sense, the time is long overdue for a resurgence in films that encompass this theme of love. The authentic love between human persons is only a glimmer of the Pure Agapic love of God, one that’s flame has never flickered but grows more fervently. If artists tap into this deep mystery of love, filmmaking will be changed forever.

Happy Easter to all of our dear friends and supporters!

We are well into the beginnings of April, 2010. This means we haven’t updated this blog in four months (and that’s just wrong). For this, we thank you for your patience.

What an incredible journey this has been.

For those who are visiting the festival’s website for the first time, thank you for taking the time to check us out. We are currently working on updating our website for our second year and we couldn’t be happier or more blessed. We humbly ask you to bear with us as we update the site with information for our upcoming year as well as all the photos, video, updates, and news about our EXTREMELY successful 2009 “Faith Through The Storm” John Paul II International Film Festival.

This blog is not just to apologize for the wait, but I am also here to share the great news of what is to come.

For those filmmakers and film lovers out there, it is my pleasure to announce that we will soon start taking submissions for our second year. however, due to certain circumstances (two of the festival’s Co-Directors–ahem, Frank Brennan and myself, will be getting hitched this summer of 2010), the festival’s second year has been moved to February 2011. That’s right, we’ll be coming back full force during the month of love (more on this and our new theme in the next blog).

For now, I can only tell you that the support we received from around the globe from Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and many other religions and cultures was so humbling, that we at the JP2IFF have been inspired to push more boundaries than we did our first year. The media is beginning to realize that people as a race have a need to connect and celebrate our humanity and the things that we share in common as well as those that make us diverse. The media is noticing that many of us are hungry for films with high quality and values, great stories, insiring performances, and conscientious messages. We hear ya, and, trust me, come February 2011, we will deliver.

Please continue to keep us in your paryers. Don’t forget, we are always looking for help and volunteers, so if you hear a call to join the “backstage” workings of the festival, we would be happy to hear from you.

Many Blessings to you and your families!

Tickets are on sale everyone. Please check out our film schedule and get your tickets early. Why? It will not only guarantee your seats, but will bring great peace to the JP2 Film Festival crew. Don’t you want to help relieve some of this stress on our shoulders? We are trying very hard to make this a huge success and that is all going to depend on you, the audience. This is the People’s Festival. The people must attend and make it their own. So we ask you all to please check out the films and BUY YOUR TICKETS!!! You are already on the website, why not browse over and support the festival with your presence at the event. We will be having many of the filmmakers here at the screenings, including Tim Chambers, Director of our Opening Night Film “The Mighty Macs” and Joe Campo, producer of our Closing Night Film, “The Human Experience”. Plus many more, we promise.

God bless you all. Don’t forget our final Prayer Meeting which is open to the public at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Wednesday October 28th. Come pray with us before our inauguration.

Blessings Everyone,

It is the first of the month and the count down has officially begun. We had a tremendous prayer meeting last night and a few unexpected guests dropped by to pray with us. Thank you so much. We spoke a little about all of the places we have gone to promote the festival and how blessed we have been to have gotten this far.

Laura found out something very interesting about John Paul II that made the crew release a big sigh and say “Ofcourse it is.” She found out that John Paul II’s virtue is perseverance. We are moving forward with this event just as JP2 would have done. We spent some time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Every time I enter into the chapel I feel at peace. I truly did not want to leave yesterday. As I was kneeling in front of Him all I could do was lift my hands in offertory. There is a profound radiation that exhausts itself through the Blessed Sacrament and the only prayer I kept saying was “Lord permeate my soul”. Instantly I thought of a sensation of pain and joy as felt by the three children at Fatima. What power is manifested within us if we would only pray.

Today was a slow day for me as I was stuck doing school work, but printing presses have been in contact with us. We are working side by side with them to help lower the cost of the event and get some T-shirts printed to sell. Friends, what came across my mind as I was discussing this with our crew is that If we can fill the seats at our theaters then this Festival will bee a success. The money will come in needed to cover all of our expenses and we will set out to do what we intended to do, bring high quality films of faith to the big screen. We are creating a “New Evangelization” as John Paul II talked about. So I say to you all, please buy your tickets for the event. Instead of seeing the weekends latest Horror movie in spirit of Halloween, celebrate with a positive film of life in the spirit of All Souls Day. Help make this your festival, the People’s Festival.

That’s all for today, I will keep you posted on our on going process throughout the month. Please continue to pray for us as your prayers are being felt and dearly appreciated.

May the peace of Christ and the Love of Mary be with you all.

Dearest friends,

It has indeed been a long and continuous winding road for the John Paul II International Film Festival. We are only one month away from the spectacular event and I feel compelled to share every day with you all henceforth.

Where are we? Well to be honest we are still pending many necessities, such as, our final guest list, website updates, ticket sales (which are on sale right now), costs to cover venues, printing materials, advertising space and time, and much more. I would not want to burden you with the stresses of a festival. But I do want you to understand how far we are and I want to share with you all just how these things may come to be in time for the event. It is in the most dire and crucial times of need do we truly show our faith. As many times as our faith has been provoked during the course of this event, I stand before you all to write that we are not moved. When I say provoked I mean provoked emotional with anger, frustration, doubt, carelessness, hostility, mistrust, pride, arrogance, etc. All these emotions were stirred from within us and also directed at us from those within our group. Physical provocation was also a factor through one of our volunteers being placed in the hospital for a random account of appendicitis and a removal of a cyst. Weight gain has been a huge factor as large amounts of stress and long working nights have effected our diet. Lack of time, in my case, has been a huge provocation to deter from this festival because of working and attending school full-time as is the case for Laura and Ralph as well. Cars have broken down before big meetings, sponsors have come forth and then rescinded their offers, celebrities have signed on to attend but last minute obligations got in the way, volunteers have committed but left when the work load was too heavy, religious leaders neglected our calls, and hope thinned to a wisp of dry air.

These are the negatives, the instances that the “evil one” would have us dwell on. These are the temptations. We live in reality and yes we must face the facts that we are short on funds, but we must never lose sight of who is in charge. All reason can be placed aside and we can rise with glory in knowing that we do not control the ultimate outcome of this festival. We can only do our part as the equipment putting it together. We must continue to work for God and he will grant is the ability to realize that he is working for us. As many downfalls that may have attached themselves to the festival, there have been many more blessings. Inevitably, it has all been a blessing, but what we choose to see as blessings in the form of gifts, services, and human interaction is what I am referring to. We have met people who are enthralled and filled with passion to see this event come to life. Hope has been placed in people from all over the world and inspiration has been distributed. I have seen more smiles than frowns, more laughs than cries, more blessings than negations. People are thirsty. This is the thesis of the John Paul II International Film Festival. Where will the media thirsty people get their drink? So many times we see it from films and art forms encouraging licentiousness, adultery, murder, slander, gossip, betrayal, revenge, ans so on. Indeed these are pieces of life that must not be ignored, but they do not have to be encouraged. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again…”John:4:13. Could Jesus be referring to something similar to these mortal desires of the flesh and this era of instant gratification? “…but whoever drinks the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” John:4:14.

Let this positive expression of art be used to deeper understand ourselves and our role as participants on this world. John Paul II truly believed that the act of creating would make visible that which is invisible in human beings and abroad, God.

Today we take our first journey together and enter into the final month of the festival. Please pray for us as we will pray for you. If there is a prayer request please place it in a comment box and we will offer it up during our prayer meetings. May the peace of Christ and the love of Mary be with you all.

Hey everyone,

The JP2 International Film Festival Crew spent last night with Christopher West who was giving a talk down here in Miami. What a spectacular night we had discovering the many profound meanings of John Paul II’s doctrine. There were many people there form different faiths and it really inspired us to see the “New Evangelization” being lived out as John Paul II requested it to be. We are an inter-faith film festival aimed at providing high-quality films that unify humanity through creation, mimicking the act of our Creator. Theology of the Body aims to unify humanity with a much deeper reverence and a sincere understanding of the Banquet which awaits us all. It is not only for faiths, but for everyone who has a body. As Christopher West said last night, “All those excluded please raise your hands.” Let us all, through our actions, be the miracles needed to Canonize him to the Saintly status of which he lives in our hearts. I encourage everyone to further your understanding of this profound life changing doctrine. Let it fill the deepest desires in your heart and pass it along to those who are yearning for the truth about their sexuality. Visit www.TOBINSTITUTE.ORG for more information. May the peace of Christ and the Love of Mary be with you all.

Hey everyone,

Please check out this link from one of our feature films.

http://testimonythedvd.com/widget