The newspaper for the diocese of Madison, WI, The Madison Catholic Herald, wrote a story on The Human Experience this past week at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  They had a recent pre-screening of the movie.  Their article is reprinted below. 

The Dominican House of Studies is sponsoring a pre-screening of the movie on Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 1.  Currently, there are tickets available only for the Saturday 2:00pm showing.  To reserve tickets, visit the website at priory.dhs.edu/humanexperience.aspx.  Joseph and Michael Campo will be available for a Q&A after each pre-screening.

Grassroots Films:
Produces films with Jesus’ fingerprints
By Mary C. Uhler
CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF

MADISON — Modern media - especially movies - play a big role in people’s lives. No one recognized that more than the late Pope John Paul II.

The pope said, “The film industry has become a universal medium exercising a profound influence on the development of people’s attitudes and choices, and possessing a remarkable ability to influence public opinion and culture across all social and political frontiers.”

Inspired by faith

Unfortunately, very few motion picture companies produce films with solid religious values. One exception is Grassroots Films based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Grassroots Films makes movies that aren’t specifically Catholic, “but a lot of our work is about evangelization,” says producer Joseph Campo. “You’ll always see Jesus’ fingerprints in all we do.”

“Through our faith and prayer life, we produce films,” said Campo.

Campo and his son, Michael Campo, visited Madison recently for a screening of their new film, The Human Experience. A sold-out audience saw the film at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

“The reaction from the audience was what we hoped for,” said Joseph. There was a standing ovation after the film.

Joseph produced the film and Michael plays one of the characters in the film.

Docu-drama

In an interview, they explained that the idea for The Human Experience came from a group of seven guys who live at St. Francis House, a Christian community in Brooklyn with the Campos. Joseph is director of the home, which actually includes two houses.

The film is a docu-drama, the story of two brothers who travel the world searching for answers to such questions as: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? How do I love? Why is there suffering?

The film focuses on faith, hope, charity, and forgiveness, said Joseph - a universal message. The brothers live among the homeless on the streets of New York, visit the lost children of Peru, and meet lepers in Ghana, Africa.

There were no actors in the film. “It’s a true story,” explained Michael. “Everyone bares their soul. What you see is what you get.”

Looking deeper

Michael said the visit to a hidden leper colony in Ghana was especially moving. “I had no idea they still existed,” he said. “To meet the lepers was a life-changing experience. They are beautiful people filled with faith. They taught us to really look inside of people.”

Joseph added, “In the West, most people will judge a person by their success in life. Yet ultimately we’ll all stand naked before God. We need to look deeper on the inside: of the lepers, the people dying of AIDS. I will never be the same after these experiences.”

The Human Experience also includes home movie footage from Joseph Campo’s family. His work with the homeless in Brooklyn has underscored the importance of family relationships, especially the love of both a mother and a father.

“You need both parents,” he said. “Your view of the world comes from your family.”

Other films

Catholics may be aware of two other projects from Grassroots Films. One is Fishers of Men, a film about the priesthood produced for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (this film may be viewed on the Diocese of Madison’s Vocations Web site at www.madisondiocese.org/Vocations/tabid/66/Default.aspx). Fishers of Men won a 2007 Gabriel Award from the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals.

Grassroots Films also produced God in the Streets of NY, about a 40-hour procession with the vocation monstrance from Pope John Paul II. “We turned 50 hours of film into a three-minute film,” said Joseph Campo. This film won the 2006 International Inigo Award.

What’s next?

There will be screenings of The Human Experience on November 30 and December 1 at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Centre in Washington, D.C.  [sponsored by the Dominican House of Studies].

After some “tweaking,” Joseph said that Grassroots Films hopes to release The Human Experience on DVD in the next few months. “Some theaters are also interested in distributing it,” he said.

What’s next for Grassroots Films? Joseph said, “It took us nine months to film The Human Experience. We’re ready for a break.”

Hopefully it will not be a long break. The world needs more films from Grassroots Films, which “aims to inspire and change the way people see reality” - and bring Gospel values to movies that will have a positive impact on society.

For more on Grassroots Films, including a preview of The Human Experience, go to www.grassrootsfilms.com

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