Catholics welcome Anglicans

As part of the research process for my film I try to be aware of all the news generated by the Catholic Church. News that are usually controversial and that demonstrate how conservative and retrograde the institution can be. It looks like the whole issue of “Catholics welcome Anglicans” is one more distressed attempt from the Church to bring more people in times when seems that more people are leaving than arriving.

This news has been all over the media over the last couple of weeks, yes, Pope benedict welcomes “angry” Anglicans.

Ordaining women is one of the issues causing a split in the Anglican Communion, and it appears that the Catholic Church is trying to take “advantage” of that situation.

In the following link we can read some information about the answer from the Anglican Church:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8351584.stm

Video Editing and Database

As a video editor creating a logic database for my film is one of my main concerns.

Doing research about the best way to create a data base for a film I came across an Interview with famous Film Editor Walter Murch.

Murch is know in the world of cinema for being the editor of films such as Apocalypse Now, Cold Mountain, Jarhead and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Before computers Murch was an user of index cards, now his favorite tool is the software FileMaker.

This software allows him to make a storyboard of screen captures. Capture images of specific moments in a particular shot that can later be printed. The software permits to extract thousands of pictures from the film; this is a key element at the time of editing in order to create the desired order.

In this video Murch explains his process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j53Ow-yJNo4

Database Cinema

Reading Lev Manovich’s “Database as Symbolic form” helped me to understand my own data base.

In the segment titled: “Database: Greenaway and Verotv.”

Manovich included the editor as part of the “curatorial process” of this database that want to be transformed into a film. Looking through all the possibilities that a film can be narrated and going through the massive database that a film is.

This reading helped to understand –as an editor of my own film- how now my database of interviews and B-roll is going to be transformed into a film, creating one more time those “endless hybrids” that the mix between database and narrative can produce.

Hybrids that can be as complex as this: http://www.tulselupernetwork.com/basis.html

This new media project developed by Peter Greenaway can be one of the key elements that make him a “database filmmaker”.

Cataloging “stuff”

I’ve been trying to figure out my system of organization, so I decided to photograph all my “stuff” that are Catholic imagery and that are playing an aesthetic role on my film.

I grew up surrounded by catholic kitsch, and for years I tried to ignore the fact that those images where there, at my grandparents house, at school at home, etc.

Now with this thesis project I’m “rediscovering” all this images and objects that represented “God’s presence” when I was growing up.

Here are some examples.

Debaptise Yourself in the UK.

Doing research about my project I came across this web site:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/debaptism.html

The National Secular Society of England helps Ex-Catholics from the UK to get ride of all the connections established with the church that started at the moment of baptism.

In this web site people can find all the process for an Ex-Catholics to make the rebaptism real:

- Find the location of your baptism. www.r-c.org.uk has links to all the Catholic Dioceses of Great Britain which is a good place to start if you don't know the name/address of the church.

- Get confirmation, via email, from the church or Diocesan Offices that they hold your baptismal records (they were good enough to also inform me that I was confirmed at the age of six! Perhaps I should be flattered they thought me mature enough to make the decision?)

- Write a letter to ‘the competent ecclesiastical authority’ at the Diocesan Offices giving the details of your baptism (date and place) and include at least the following paragraphs:

1.“I wish to declare my formal defection from the Catholic Church in accordance with canons 1086, § 1, 1117 and 1124 of the Code of Canon Law as mentioned in notification Prot. N. 10279/2006 from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.”

2.“I hereby reject the teachings, dogma and authority of the Roman Catholic church and any benefits, so-called sacraments, graces and blessings supposedly bestowed upon me, either in the past or the future. Furthermore, please note that I make these statements personally, consciously and freely.”

3. I respectfully request confirmation that this act has been noted in the baptismal registry (cfr. can. 535, § 2) with explicit mention of the occurrence of a ‘defectio ab Ecclesia catholica actu formali’.”

BBC News on “Debaptise Yourself!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCiqaqyJjk

Still looking for...

My film is called "Recovering Catholics"; I'm looking for ex-Catholics that left the Catholic Church and are willing to share their experience about leaving the church, in front of a camera. I want to explore issues such as the Catholic guilt, disagreements with the doctrine and how the decision to leave the church has affected relationships with family & friends, among other issues.