Paulist Productions on NIGHTLINE

Paulist Productions will be featured on this Thursday's NIGHTLINE/ABC.  NIGHTLINE is doing a story on exorcism.  The segment will use excerpts from our documentary in development "Who the Hell is Satan"  and additional interviews shot Friday with Paulist Producer Barbara Gangi and an individual freed from evil.  Depending on the news cycle, the piece may be pushed to Friday, so program your DVRs appropriately!  

Of course you already have The Lost Valentine scheduled, right?

What a week!

Paulist Productions working with Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Paulist Productions is currently videotaping marketing and training video segments for the upcoming parish program Living the Eucharist for its sister ministry Paulist Evangelization Ministries, based in Washington D.C.

The hosts for the English language segments are Paulist Production's President Fr. Eric Andrews, CSP  Wendee Bresee (pictured above).  Local L.A. Pastor Rev. Anthony Gonzalez and Maria Casas host the Spanish language edition.  Many Westside Parishes have graciously opened their doors to our film crew including St. Paul the Apostle (Westwood), St. Sebastian's (West L.A.), University Catholic Center at UCLA, and St. Clement's (Santa Monica).

Living the Eucharist is designed for individuals and faith communities to deepen their Eucharistic Spirituality.  It is scheduled for a Lent 2012 launch in parishes across the United States.

While Paulist Productions is known primarily for Film and Television Projects, it also produces videos for various Paulist Father's projects.  Check out our You Tube Page!

Catholic News Service Review of THE LOST VALENTINE

"The Lost Valentine," Jan. 30, CBS 
By John Mulderig Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- With the first of the baby boomers turning 65 this year, the ranks of their parents -- the children of the Depression and the youthful GIs and Rosie the Riveters of the Second World War -- are rapidly thinning. So perhaps it's an appropriate time for a celebration of the values and ideals cherished by those who have aptly been called the "greatest generation."
"The Lost Valentine" -- a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, produced in association with Paulist Productions -- offers just such a salute. Based on James Michael Pratt's novel, and directed by Darnell Martin, the sweetly romantic, family-oriented drama premieres Sunday, Jan. 30, 9-11 p.m. EST on CBS.
Each Valentine's Day -- her wedding anniversary and the anniversary, a year later, of her husband's departure for service in the Pacific -- Caroline Thomas, touchingly played by the indefatigable Betty White, returns to the railroad station where she saw her courageous and high-minded spouse, Neil (Billy Magnussen), for the last time.
Though he was reported missing in action shortly after the birth of their son a few months later, 65 years on, Neil's ultimate fate remains a mystery.
Assigned to cover Caroline's story as a human interest piece, initially doubtful TV reporter Susan Allison (Jennifer Love Hewitt) rapidly finds herself drawn to the plucky octogenarian and -- more significantly -- to Caroline's biggest fan, her protective grandson, Lucas (Sean Faris).
Susan's feelings for Lucas are complicated, however, by her relationship with longtime boyfriend, Andrew (Will Chase), a globetrotting photographer who, in an early scene, proposes to Susan shortly before departing for his latest journey to distant climes.
The unabashedly old-fashioned teleplay, by Maryann Ridini Spencer and Barton Taney, showcases Caroline's enduring marital love and -- as the circumstances of his last days are gradually uncovered -- Neil's selfless heroism.
As for Susan's dilemma, it pits the modern taste for a lifestyle abundant in space and freedom, typified by the possibilities of marriage to the often-absent Andrew, against the hometown closeness and simplicity offered by Lucas.
If the proceedings occasionally seem over-idealized, this is, nonetheless, that current rarity: quality programming appropriate for all ages. So parents can feel entirely comfortable gathering the clan for a wholesome and inviting stroll back in time to the days of swing music, victory gardens, and demanding commitments -- both personal and patriotic -- fulfilled.
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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.
END

Press Coverage for The Lost Valentine

The Lost Valentine, our collaboration with the Hallmark Hall of Fame, is getting great news coverage.

Here's an article from the Catholic News Service, that is distributed to all Catholic Newspapers throughout the country:

PAULIST-HALLMARK Jan-13-2011 (790 words) 

Paulist Productions gets co-producer credit on new Hallmark TV movie

By Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service

            WASHINGTON (CNS) - The next "Hallmark Hall of Fame" made-for-television movie will feature a couple of firsts -- a rarity for the venerable TV franchise, which has logged more than 200 such movies over the decades.

            For one thing, Paulist Productions is getting a co-producing credit on "The Lost Valentine," slated to air Sunday, Jan. 30, 9-11 p.m. EST on CBS.

            For another, it will be the first Valentine's Day-themed Hallmark movie. "This is pretty astounding, considering how many valentine cards they sell," mused Paulist Father Eric Andrews, the head of Paulist Productions for the past year and a half.

            Hallmark Productions worked with CBS to air last year's Christmas movie over this past year's Thanksgiving weekend so that Hallmark could devote more time to properly promote "The Lost Valentine."

            The movie stars Betty White as the wife of a World War II soldier who left the home front for the Pacific theater on Valentine's Day -- their first wedding anniversary -- and some months later was reported missing in action. Every Valentine's Day since, White's character has returned to the train station in a stoic vigil to wait for the man who promised to return to her.

            She gets some help in solving the mystery of his disappearance from a TV news reporter played by Jennifer Love Hewitt of "Ghost Whisperer" fame; Hewitt is listed as one of the movie's executive producers.

            The Paulist connection came courtesy of Barbara Gangi, the film's producer and a board member of Catholics in Media Associates.

            "I was waiting for a plane, I went to the airport gift shop, I saw this novel, and it looked like a cute little romance, set in the Forties," Gangi told Catholic News Service from her home in Burbank, Calif. She read it and loved it, but promptly forgot about it.

            "Several years later, someone brought me a script. I thought, 'Gee this sounds familiar,' and sure enough it turns out to be the book that I had read," Gangi said. "I took it to Hallmark. It was the only place I shopped it. ... They loved it. Four years later, it was a process of licensing and contracts, but it finally got made."

            Gangi's partner in the production was Paulist Father Frank Desiderio, Father Andrews' predecessor as head of Paulist Productions. Father Andrews said it was only a matter of timing that his own name is on the closing credits and not his predecessor's.

            But it was also timing that led to the teaming of White and Hewitt to head the cast. White's been on a hot streak unprecedented for many Hollywood octogenarians since the Television Critics Association gave her its lifetime achievement award in July 2009, which led first to a popular Snickers commercial, then a successful Facebook effort to have her guest host "Saturday Night Live." White now co-stars in a hit cable-TV comedy, "Hot in Cleveland."

            "She told her agent, 'I'm not going to do any more movies. I don't want to take the time, and I'm not going out of town,'" Gangi told CNS. "I took it to her agent (and he said), 'She told me: "Don't bring any more scripts." But I'm going to give it to her because it will resonate with her."

            White read the script at her agent's insistence. "I cried it when I read it," she reported, "then I cried the next 10 times I read it. I want to do it, but don't take me out of town too long." The filming schedule in Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn., was a compact 25 days.

            The chances of getting Hewitt attached to the project, Gangi said, were "not that great because at the time she was doing 'Ghost Whisperer.' We went back and forth and Betty came on, and Jenny's series was canceled, so it was a matter of all these great forces coming together at once."

            Father Andrews, talking to CNS from Paulist Productions headquarters in Pacific Palisades, Calif., raved about White's performance. "She's known for comedy, but to see her (character) grieve helpfully, to get in touch with her feelings and be able to emote about them, is just incredible," he said.

            "I was a big 'Password' fan, Father Andrews added, referring to the popular daytime game show hosted by White's late husband, Allen Ludden. "The way he presided on television, I picked up some of those traits when I preside at Mass."

            When Father Andrews told this to White on the set, "she teared up and said, 'You don't know how much that means to me. His birthday was a couple of days ago.' She cried. We both cried."

            CNS staff critic John Mulderig gave a hearty endorsement to "The Lost Valentine," calling it "that current rarity: quality programming appropriate for all ages."

END

INSIGHT RETURNS!

Our 50th Anniversary is the perfect time to bring Insight back to television! Fundraising efforts are underway to underwrite a retrospective of this award winning series and its creator, Fr. Bud Kieser. We believe that this documentary will create enthusiasm and support for a new version of the series that will explore the human issues of today.

Helping the Paulist Fathers Keep the Mission Alive

Paulist Productions is currently working with the Paulist Fathers on four projects designed to carry out and promote the Paulist mission.

Living the Eucharist - The Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association (PNCEA), which was founded by the Paulist Fathers in 1977 to equip Catholics to spread the Gospel, has asked us to produce video segments for their new parish-based spiritual renewal program, Living the Eucharist. The program is designed to heighten participants’ experience of the Sunday Eucharist. It will also provide strategies for creating more vibrant liturgies and inviting inactive Catholics home.

Vocation Video – Over Labor Day weekend, a Paulist Production film crew traveled to Washington D.C. to interview Paulist priests and seminarians for a new Paulist vocation video designed especially for the internet and Paulist web site, Paulist.org. Paulist Productions has produced many Paulist vocation films and videos starting with “Fishers of Men” in 1960.

Annual Paulist Appeal & Planned Giving - The Paulist Development Office needed to find new ways of presenting valuable information to potential donors and benefactors and turned to Paulist Productions for help. These Videos will be available in January 2011.