This is the latest newsletter on the documentary I have sent out by e-mail. If you interested in getting on the list for these notices, please let me know at editor@taucrossbooks.com. Please not also that the PayPal set-up has now been fixed, so that when you donate at the documentary’s website, the extra $3.75 for shipping isn’t added any longer.
Dear Friends,
I’m happy to say that the first showing of a rough cut of A Woman For Our Time: St. Elizabeth of Hungary on June 1 went very well. Some 80 people attended the screening at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Melville, and there was very enthusiastic applause and much comment afterward. This is a great way to help toward finalizing the editing, because I now know what works and what doesn’t. The temporary narration for the showing was provided by an actress friend of mine, who agreed to donate her services at short notice.
There is still a lot to be done not only for the final editing, but completion of narration in different voices, final music score and preparing subtitle tracks, as well as making copies for distribution. Not to mention the outstanding bills for photo and video rights.
Unfortunately, I have come to a complete standstill on the financial side. A very generous donation from a Franciscan friend helped me get a much needed transfer of some of our original HDV tapes to disk (the original transfer had been lost, and the only thing left was the bad DVD version that caused all sorts of trouble). Because the tapes from Rome used an older camera, a camera I couldn’t seem to rent anywhere, I had to go to a video house to have them do the transfer; in all that cost $750.00.
So once again, I’d like to urge people who are interested in the film to make a donation. You can donate HERE, using your Paypal account or credit or debit card.
Or you can send a check or money order to Lori Pieper, Tau Cross Books and Media, 30 W. 190th St., Apt. 6N, Bronx, NY 10468. If you donate $10 or more, you will get a free copy of the DVD. Please be sure to include your name and mailing address. I’m hoping this will give me the last push necessary to put the film out.
In a short time, I hope to put one last short trailer on YouTube, using some of the beautiful recreation footage of Elizabeth’s life we shot last fall in LA. It will also include a bit from Elizabeth’s childhood I shot in May in Queens, with little Isabel Mogollon playing Elizabeth.
And also hopefully I will soon be able to announce the distribution date.
Please keep reading these updates to learn of future showings. If you are in the New York area and are interested in having a showing in your church, school, SFO fraternity, etc. — anywhere that has a TV and DVD player, please let me know.
Thanks you for your patience, especially all those who have donated so generously. May God, St. Francis and St. Elizabeth bless you.
Well, maybe it wasn’t quite a world premiere, since it isn’t even finished, but the screening of the rough cut of my film A Woman for Our Time: St. Elizabeth of Hungary last Tuesday night was a great success, with some 80 people in attendance and enormous applause afterward.
I haven’t been able to put up anything about it until now, since I’ve had to do some 60 hours of work this past week — and I’m not yet done — to make up for time lost last week. Not to mention the fact that our little early heat wave this past week in New York has really been dragging me down. (Happily it got cooler last night and is now quite comfortable). I do plan to keep everyone updated on possible future screenings this summer, as the film is readied for DVD.
Don’t forget, if you would like to receive further updates on the film via e-mail, please write to me at editor@taucrossbooks.com, and you will be put on the list. You can also donate to completion of the film here:
I have admittedly been remiss in posting updates here since the big announcement. But I haven’t been idle. On Saturday, I filmed the last little scene needed for the recreations, with Elizabeth as a child, thanks to Elaine Mogollon and her little daughter Isabel.
The scene is Elizabeth being discovered with her father with bread she is carrying for the poor, which turns into roses. (I discussed the various versions of this story here). We had a really windy day to contend with, but the shoot was a success!
Here’s a peek (unfortunately, since these are actual stills from the videotape, and because they are of someone in motion, unless they’re extreme closeups, they’re inevitably going to be a little fuzzy):
Well, the time has come; I made the announcement to our regional chapter of the SFO yesterday, and plans are underway.
The “world premiere” — well, actually more like a “sneak preview” — of my documentary, A Woman for Our Time: St. Elizabeth of Hungary, will be held at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church in Melville (Long Island) New York, on Tuesday June 1, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. The screening is free and all are welcome. The film will still be in a rough state, with temporary narration and music track. There will hopefully be time for questions and answers afterward.
Many thanks to the pastor, Fr. Frank Schneider, and Pauline and Ralph DiCicco for making this happen.
How to get there:
The address is 175 Wolf Hill Road Melville, NY 11747
From Points West
- Northern State Parkway East to exit 41 (Wolf Hill Rd.)
- Make a left turn onto Wolf Hill Rd.
- Go straight through 2 traffic lights.
- Parish grounds are immediately after St. Anthony’s High School on the right. Park in large rear lot.
- The screening will be held in the Hospitality Room.
Now that tax time is (whew!) over for another year, I want to catch up on a few things.
My two stories on the Pope’s (non)-scandal have gained a tremendous amount of interest for this blog, but because of all the time I had to spend on them a few other things suffered.
Here’s a roundup:
Documentary
One project that suffered was actually beyond my control. The work on the St. Elizabeth documentary, which I had hoped would soon be far enough along for me to show a fairly good amount of completed footage with a temporary narration and music track, has been stalled for almost a month. It started with the computer crash on March 20 that I’ve already mentioned. It was a week before the store would condescend to back up the files from disk, though I in fact had most of them backed up already. In the meantime, I was able to use my spare laptop, but it was useless to think of working on video there, because the hard drive was so small.
Well, the hard drive was defective, so the store allowed me to trade in my computer. Then when I got my new laptop (and 500GB hard drive!) home, and all the files had been painstakingly copied back to the right directories — the documentary project file would either refuse to open or would indicate it couldn’t find any of my files. Another frustrating couple of weeks. I first tried to do this on Holy Saturday, at the same time I was helping Jimmy with the famous article.
Right after Easter, I was online with the tech geeks at Adobe, but it was some time before I got the problem solved. And unfortunately, the solution was to re-link all the video in the edited project to the original files, one at a time. That took a lot of time, but fortunately, all my original editing decisions had been saved, and I didn’t have re-do any of that. All the same, a good amount of time has been lost. I feel that I really owe an explanation to everyone who has been waiting patiently for the documentary to be done.
I do expect to have more news soon, including the date(s) I will be showing the footage in the New York area, and some more interesting news I hope as well.
Find out more about the film and donate to its completion HERE
As a consolation, here are a couple of more stills, from the famous scene of the roses:
Book News
In other news, the original print run of The Greatest of These is Love, my biography of St. Elizabeth, has just officially sold out (except for maybe 3-4 copies on Amazon). Get the last ones while you can! I do hope, when I have time, to put out an updated digital edition for Kindle, E-Pub and the like.
Our Patron
And, in all my attention to scandals and taxes, I missed the feast day (in the old Church calendar at least) of the patron saint of this blog, St. Justin Martyr, on April 14. I’ve got to find a picture of him and put it up, but in the meantime here is my imaginary letter to him that serves as the blog’s mission statement:
Update: Here’s something even better — a video on him!
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"The history of the Catholic missions is by now a long road: at the beginning of that road is the Father of Mercy, who holds out his arms to all his children. All those who encounter the missionaries encounter the Father. And they also encounter the Son, the first missionary, who, obeying the Father, comes to earth, becomes flesh in human nature, is one of us, in solidarity with our misery (except for sin) and ends up dying for us in order to then return to heaven, carrying on his shoulders the human race his has won back.
Out of the same mold are the missionaries, who repeat, in some way, his journey. They too leave their fathers and families and depart to go among a foreign people. They too strip themselves of the refined culture they have acquired in their homelands; and of their native customs and habitat, of a hundred little comforts, in order to be in solidarity. With who? With a people who are on one hand naked and poor, and on the other rich in possibilities, which the missionaries intend to respect, value and elevate."
Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I), to the people of his diocese of Vittorio Veneto, on his return from the diocesan missions in Africa in 1966
