Focusing on the difficulties of filming spiritual matters, award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney discussed and screened excerpts from her documentary, “John Paul II: The Millennial Pope” before an audience of about 20 last night at the School of Education Auditorium.
“How do you suggest the contradictions of the pope without turning to the piety of the left or the hagiography of the right?” asked Whitney, whose appearance was sponsored by the Division of Religion and Theological Studies. “The man is a tower of contradictions. He’s the most political pope of all time, yet he is against priests speaking out politically. He worships the Virgin Mary, but is against a stronger role for women in the church.
“It’s a challenge as a filmmaker to determine how to illuminate spiritual themes, how to structure the film. It’s impossible to fully do so for the pope — his life is so large.”
The three-hour film, which was trimmed to about 50 minutes for last night’s screening, was divided into several sections: landscape, which examined Poland; Jews, which studied the pope’s relationship with the Jewish culture; women; the culture of death; faith, an overview of the pope’s faith and other Catholics’ faith or lack thereof; and legacy.
“The landscape section is very important,” Whitney said. “You cannot understand this pope without knowing from whence he came. It doesn’t limit him, but it has shaped him.”
Whitney said her favorite act of the documentary, and one she planned on expanding on in her next film, was faith.
“[The pope’s] faith is just suffused with suffering,” she said. “His writings show that he feels he has to suffer in order be a better person. But this last section leaves him behind to focus on people I find fascinating — people searching for, or who have lost, their faith.”
Whitney said the pope had seen the film, and although he did not like all of it, he still found it “engaging.” However, the film’s presentation on Polish television brought a less receptive response.
“It caused a sensation in Poland,” Whitney said. “The person at the television station responsible for bringing the film to the station and airing it was fired. Catholics were upset that their icon was turned into a human, and the large anti-Semite population was furious that the film suggested the pope loved Jews. I received many hate e-mails.”
Whitney spent two-and-a-half years making the documentary and said it was the most difficult film she had ever made.
“The word ‘journey’ is often overused and abused, but making this film truly was a journey,” she said. “Had I known how difficult this was going to be beforehand, I might not have done it.
“Spiritually, though, I wound up in a very different place than I started out in.”
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