Hallmark Channel Friday, May 31, 2013 8/7 Jimmy Hawkins (Thomas Horn) is the son of a retired NASA astronaut, Captain Andy Hawkins (Dermot Mulroney) who once worked on the International Space Station. Jimmy lives with his mom, Sally (Mira Sorvino), who is divorced from Andy. Jimmy love astrophysics and has always dreamed of being an astronaut and against his parents’ wishes, secretly applies to attend a special summer camp session at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama. The... Read more
A few years ago, in early 2006, Jonathan Bock, the president of Grace Hill Media, a firm that markets major motion pictures to the faith audience, arranged for a panel presentation about Christianity to both the Los Angeles and New York administrative and creative support teams for New Line Cinema. New Line Cinema had just signed on to produce “The Nativity Story,” and there was interest in making sure everyone involved understood what this story would mean to millions of viewers.... Read more
Director Margarethe von Trotta, whose numinous 2009 film, “Vision,” told the life story of St. Hildegard of Bingen, has taken on the story of another influential woman, the philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-75). “Hannah Arendt” opens in New York in 1960 where Arendt (Barbara Sukowa), a German émigré and secular Jew, writes and teaches at a university. When the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, captures the Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann and takes him clandestinely to Jerusalem to stand... Read more
REBEL: Story of Cuban woman who fought in the Civil War Voces series on PBS Friday, May 24, 2013 10PM ET (check local listings) Loreta Janeta Velasquez, born in Cuba in 1842, was one of an estimated 1000 women who disguised themselves as men to fight on both sides in the American Civil War. The “politics of national memory” marginalized and challenged her story from the time she published her story in 1876, “A Woman in Battle.” The book is... Read more
An Orthodox Hassidic Jewish family in Tel Aviv awaits the birth of the middle daughter Esther’s (Renana Raz) first child. When she goes into labor suddenly and dies giving birth, the family is distraught. Things grow tense when Esther’s husband Yochay (Yiftach Klein) announces he is moving to Belgium to marry again and Esther’s mother begins to pressure her youngest daughter, Shira (Haddas Yaron) to marry Yochay. But Shira is only 18, ten years younger than Yochay, and she... Read more
Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire), a budding financier, rents a flat next door to a mansion owned by the mysterious Jay Gatsby (Leonardo di Caprio) on Long Island during the Jazz Age, 1922 to be exact. Nick’s cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her husband Tom (Joe Edgerton), live in a mansion across the inlet where a green light flashes at the end of the dock – beckoning or warning? Gatsby throws extravagant parties that the rich and famous attend uninvited. The... Read more
A few weeks ago a blog writer for Loyola Press contacted me for an interview for their “Arts & Faith” page. Here is the interview – thank you so much, Loyola Press (Elizabeth Elliott and Rosemary Lane). Catholic Nun and Film Critic Finds God’s Grace at Movies Read more
Canadian director and former child actress (Avonlea), Sarah Polley, has made an fascinating kind-of documentary about her family, and her parentage especially, in “The Stories We Tell.” From her mother Diane’s death when Sarah was eleven years old, rumors began to circulate that her biological father was not the father who raised her, Michael Polley. Over time Sarah decided to tell her story via a documentary film, even though some cast members are actors. She looks at the nature of... Read more
Some of the 2012 students on the tour of Sony Studios Announcing our “Advanced Certificate in Media Literacy Course” Sunday, July 7 – Saturday July 13, 2013 Click here for details & registration form For more information contact Sr. Jennifer at [email protected] Registration deadline: June 25, 2013 Read more
As time goes by I continue to receive inquiries about writing or reading a script that will save the world and change Hollywood. Today someone asked me how to get an agent so he can get his script to Mel Gibson. Gibson’s office finally replied to him after a year that they will only consider a script that comes through an agent. There are many books available on screenwriting and how to get your movie made in Hollywood. You can... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In