Catholic Movie Making Doesn't Need to Be So Catholic

Sure, there are cringy-embarrassing Christian movies. But Catholics should not dismiss partnerships with evangelicals and Hollywood to reach the mainstream moviegoer.

In a recent video interview at the Word on Fire Institute, an online community founded by Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic filmmaker Anthony D’Ambrosio said that when he heard about it in advance, he had high hopes for Shia LaBeouf’s film version of the life of St. Padre Pio because LaBeouf joined the church after making the movie. But when he finally saw the film, D’Ambrosio was disappointed.

Though he didn’t say why the 2022 Padre Pio fell short of his expectations, D’Ambrosio presented the episode as a cautionary tale: Catholics need to make more movies themselves and should not rely on Hollywood types like LaBeouf to do it for them.

D’Ambrosio, along with co-creator Cecilia Stevenson, are promoting the October release of their feature Triumph of the Heart, focusing on the last days of St. Maximilian Kolbe at Auschwitz. An achingly difficult story, but one that the film explores for its spiritual message, which is ultimately inspiring.

D’Ambrosio and Stevenson, who made their film on a shoestring budget of $500,000, think that there need to be more movies about saints for a mainstream audience. To produce them, D’Ambrosio wants to raise money from Catholic donors to create a Catholic film ecosystem. He says it’s the only way to produce films with stories that are both reverent of the faith and entertaining — while also meeting high production standards expected in theaters and on streaming services alike.

Those are worthy goals: evangelize the faith through films that are excellent in themselves.

But does it have to be a Catholic-only effort?

I wonder if D’Ambrosio talked with Angel Studios, producer of the surprise blockbuster The Sound of Freedom. The 2023 film about the fight against human trafficking stars Jim Caviezel, known to Catholics for portraying Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the Christ, along with Mira Sorvino. The Sound of Freedom earned $212 million in the weeks after its launch, ranking it in the top 20 independent films ever released.

Co-founded by Neal Harmon, a devout Mormon and graduate of Brigham Young University, Angel Studios has has put out Christian films and TV so successfully over the last few years that the family-friendly entertainment company seems to have breached the firewall separating faith-based flicks from mainstream movies.

I first encountered the work of Angel Studios through The Chosen, the multiyear series now preparing to launch its fifth season on the life of Jesus and the disciples. Though it’s currently produced independently by its creator Dallas Jenkins, The Chosen was launched by Angel in 2017.

Of special interest to Catholics from Angel Studios was last year’s Cabrini, a biopic on the struggle of St. Mary Frances Cabrini to establish orphanages for children of Italian immigrants in New York City in the late nineteenth century.

The film has won high praise from Catholic film buffs.

While he rates the movie at 9 out of 10 overall, Matteo Rivera, the Cinematic Catholic, gives Cabrini a “Catholic score” of 10 out of 10. “The presence of God in this movie is subtle, but it is there, and I believe that this movie and Cabrini’s story will inspire an entirely new generation of saints for the world today because this fight is not over yet.”

Father Mike Schmitz agrees that the power of religion could be more explicit in the film and considers Cabrini to be a mainstream film on a Catholic subject. Sometimes the character of Mother Cabrini “comes off as just a nineteenth-century girlboss who just can get it done on her own power” rather than by praying for help from and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. But for Father Mike, the experience of watching Cabrini was strangely moving. “I just found myself weeping for most of the movie and I don’t actually know why…all this goodness, all this truth, this is a real story about a real saint…I just know that I felt something in my heart…I give it a thumbs up.”

As I’ve been drawn towards the Catholic faith in the last couple years — now I’m in catechism class (called OCIA) and plan to be received into the church at Easter — I’ve come to understand why Catholics often seem so determined to have their own schools, clubs, media, publishers, and even mutual funds to keep their lives in line with their faith.

But sometimes Catholic exceptionalism seems unnecessary and may even be counterproductive to the goal of reaching the wider culture with the authentic Gospel.

When it comes to films and video, well-chosen partnerships can give Catholic stories a wider reach. The Mormons at Angel Studios, Chosen producer Dallas Jenkins, an evangelical, and even big Hollywood actors like John Lithgow, who played fictional New York City Mayor Gould in Cabrini, can help films on Catholic subjects produced with integrity reach more viewers with style.

I can’t wait for October to see Triumph of The Heart. The film’s writer and director D’Ambrosio is right that Catholic donors should support, and Catholic audiences should demand, high-quality Christian films like his project is sure to be. But faithful filmmakers will slow their own success if they set up a Catholics-only film club.

I hope that D’Ambrosio and other Catholic filmmakers will not confine themselves to Catholic allies but will instead reach out to Angel Studios and others who are making Christian films that pass the test of clergy, critics, and cinema lovers alike.