Come visit Paulist Productions at the L.A. Archdiocese Religious Education Congress at the Anaheim Convention Center near Disneyland. We will be located at booth #306 next door to the Paulist Press.
We will be getting the word out about our exciting, new program FilmClips for Catholic Youth Faith Formation. This program combines clips from well known movies and study guides designed for Catholic youth groups, confirmation formation programs, and religion classes in parochial schools. The program can also be easily adapted for adult faith formation settings. It is a great way to jump start faith sharing, especially among hard to reach teenagers!
Come meet Paulist Productions President Fr. Eric Andrews, C.S.P.; Producer-Director Mike Rhodes, the creator of the FilmClips program; and Catholic educator extraordinaire Joan Doyle who authored the new Catholic FilmClip study guides.
We will have special raffles of the FilmClip DVDs every hour at the Congress as well as free Paulist Productions give aways (aka swag).
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Paulist Productions Featured in Palisades Post
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The New Hollywood Priest
By Libby Motika, Senior Editor
2011-03-10
'Quality programming appropriate for all ages.' This sentence, seemingly so simple, is larded with qualifiers, especially in 2011.
For 50 years, Paulist Productions, founded by the indomitable Paulist priest Elwood 'Bud' Kieser, has navigated that narrow entertainment bracket by relying on strong stories that resist both spiritual didactism and crass sensationalism.
The Pacific Palisades film company, ensconced in the Spanish Revival building on Pacific Coast Highway'the infamous Thelma Todd Caf'continues its dedication to programs that 'challenge our viewers to love others, and to liberate one another from all that is dehumanizing.'
Now under the leadership of Fr. Eric Andrews, the company is headed into new territory, exploring myriad programming platforms, including Internet and DVD.
Andrews, who took over as president in September 2009 from Fr. Frank Desiderio, came in on the production phase of 'The Lost Valentine,' the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation that aired in January on CBS.
The story starred Betty White, as a woman who returns to the train station on her wedding anniversary, Valentine's Day, where she said good-bye to her husband who was shipping out to the Pacific, and who later was missing in action. His ultimate fate remains a mystery. Jennifer Love Hewitt ('The Ghost Whisperer') assists in solving the mystery.
The drama was the highest-rated show on that Sunday night, and number three in the weekly ratings.
Parlaying that success, Andrews has been able to take stories, pitched to Paulist Productions that are in various stages of development, while also furthering his own ideas within the Hollywood community.
'The Hallmark project was a good human drama and people related to it, but that lasts only for so long,' Andrews says. 'I hope that a year from now we have several very strong projects that work on cable and/or on a network slot.'
Understanding that 'even the most distinguished people in town are having a hard time [funding projects],' Andrews says that the Hallmark project helped him establish more relationships in the industry, but that 'we're going to have invest more of our endowment to fund new projects in the short run.'
Fr. Kieser incorporated Paulist Productions in the late 1960s, separate from the Paulist Fathers, for purposes of fundraising. All the money in the endowment has come from donations and proceeds from feature films. The company is not in the moneymaking business, but has a well connected advisory board that helps raise funds. Palisadians who serve as advisors include writer Jim McGinn, producer Mike Sullivan, and producer Vin Di Bona ('America's Funniest Videos').
Andrews, 46, comes to the job with a business and film background. In fact, it wasn't until after he graduated from New York University Film School and worked at The Jim Henson Company that he pursued his religious calling. The Paulist community originally appealed to him because of its focus on communications as a means of teaching. He was ordained in 1995 and first served as associate pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City until 1999, when he worked for a year as executive producer of Paulist Media Works.
Andrews then served six years as associate pastor/campus minister at John XXIII University Parish at the University of Tennessee, where he learned fundraising and managing personnel.
'I took this job [Paulist Productions] against my better judgment,' Andrews says, halfway in jest. 'I've worked in showbiz; it's hard work and there are hard deals. This is a sport for younger people.' However, he claims confidence as a communicator and schmoozer'much like Fr. Kieser, known as 'The Hollywood Priest,' who was a master at getting top talent in Hollywood to work for him for a pittance. 'People will do for God what they won't do for money,' said the charismatic Kieser, who died in 2000.
'Bud built this company at a time when commercial stations had to give away 30 minutes of programming a week,' Andrews explains. 'It could be scattered over a week or used all in one piece.' With that window, Kieser launched 'Insight,' the half-hour anthology series that ran on Sunday mornings from 1961 through 1983.
'He sold it market by market, so eventually 'Insight' was syndicated all across the U.S. He was not afraid to take on controversial issues, like drug abuse, teen sex, cloning, and even corrosion in the media. In 1982, he did a mock reality show in which a person was promised $1 million to play Russian roulette with their loved one.'
Andrews is talking to Martin Sheen, who has starred in many Paulist productions throughout the years, about a retrospective documentary on 'Insight.' Another project in the works is a reality piece, 'Should I Marry You?' that will offer a format for questions that might help couples make decisions.
'After my 16 years of preparing couples for marriage, I have questions,' Andrews says, adding that he is still working out how best to structure the program, but that it would have to be 'watchable, celebratory and entertaining.'
'Quality programming appropriate for all ages.' This sentence, seemingly so simple, is larded with qualifiers, especially in 2011.
For 50 years, Paulist Productions, founded by the indomitable Paulist priest Elwood 'Bud' Kieser, has navigated that narrow entertainment bracket by relying on strong stories that resist both spiritual didactism and crass sensationalism.
The Pacific Palisades film company, ensconced in the Spanish Revival building on Pacific Coast Highway'the infamous Thelma Todd Caf'continues its dedication to programs that 'challenge our viewers to love others, and to liberate one another from all that is dehumanizing.'
Now under the leadership of Fr. Eric Andrews, the company is headed into new territory, exploring myriad programming platforms, including Internet and DVD.
Andrews, who took over as president in September 2009 from Fr. Frank Desiderio, came in on the production phase of 'The Lost Valentine,' the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation that aired in January on CBS.
The story starred Betty White, as a woman who returns to the train station on her wedding anniversary, Valentine's Day, where she said good-bye to her husband who was shipping out to the Pacific, and who later was missing in action. His ultimate fate remains a mystery. Jennifer Love Hewitt ('The Ghost Whisperer') assists in solving the mystery.
The drama was the highest-rated show on that Sunday night, and number three in the weekly ratings.
Parlaying that success, Andrews has been able to take stories, pitched to Paulist Productions that are in various stages of development, while also furthering his own ideas within the Hollywood community.
'The Hallmark project was a good human drama and people related to it, but that lasts only for so long,' Andrews says. 'I hope that a year from now we have several very strong projects that work on cable and/or on a network slot.'
Understanding that 'even the most distinguished people in town are having a hard time [funding projects],' Andrews says that the Hallmark project helped him establish more relationships in the industry, but that 'we're going to have invest more of our endowment to fund new projects in the short run.'
Fr. Kieser incorporated Paulist Productions in the late 1960s, separate from the Paulist Fathers, for purposes of fundraising. All the money in the endowment has come from donations and proceeds from feature films. The company is not in the moneymaking business, but has a well connected advisory board that helps raise funds. Palisadians who serve as advisors include writer Jim McGinn, producer Mike Sullivan, and producer Vin Di Bona ('America's Funniest Videos').
Andrews, 46, comes to the job with a business and film background. In fact, it wasn't until after he graduated from New York University Film School and worked at The Jim Henson Company that he pursued his religious calling. The Paulist community originally appealed to him because of its focus on communications as a means of teaching. He was ordained in 1995 and first served as associate pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City until 1999, when he worked for a year as executive producer of Paulist Media Works.
Andrews then served six years as associate pastor/campus minister at John XXIII University Parish at the University of Tennessee, where he learned fundraising and managing personnel.
'I took this job [Paulist Productions] against my better judgment,' Andrews says, halfway in jest. 'I've worked in showbiz; it's hard work and there are hard deals. This is a sport for younger people.' However, he claims confidence as a communicator and schmoozer'much like Fr. Kieser, known as 'The Hollywood Priest,' who was a master at getting top talent in Hollywood to work for him for a pittance. 'People will do for God what they won't do for money,' said the charismatic Kieser, who died in 2000.
'Bud built this company at a time when commercial stations had to give away 30 minutes of programming a week,' Andrews explains. 'It could be scattered over a week or used all in one piece.' With that window, Kieser launched 'Insight,' the half-hour anthology series that ran on Sunday mornings from 1961 through 1983.
'He sold it market by market, so eventually 'Insight' was syndicated all across the U.S. He was not afraid to take on controversial issues, like drug abuse, teen sex, cloning, and even corrosion in the media. In 1982, he did a mock reality show in which a person was promised $1 million to play Russian roulette with their loved one.'
Andrews is talking to Martin Sheen, who has starred in many Paulist productions throughout the years, about a retrospective documentary on 'Insight.' Another project in the works is a reality piece, 'Should I Marry You?' that will offer a format for questions that might help couples make decisions.
'After my 16 years of preparing couples for marriage, I have questions,' Andrews says, adding that he is still working out how best to structure the program, but that it would have to be 'watchable, celebratory and entertaining.'
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