Grassroots Films is an independent film company catalyzed by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in response to JPII’s message,
“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.”
~the late Pope John Paul II
It’s so true. There needs to be more of us using film as the medium with which we speak God’s truth. There are more and more people getting involved in media just for this purpose, and it’s so exciting! Just check out YouTube and start browsing through different priests’ videos, you can find pro-life videos and even Grassroot Film’s trailers.
The Human Experience, which will be released Fall 2007, is Grassroot’s latest project, and it’s about, well, what it’s like to be human. Watch the trailer on Myspace by clicking on the image below and anticipate great cinematography and a fascinating message based on the truth of our God.
April 6, 2007 at 7:34 pm
INTERVIEW
Helping to Save the MTV Generation
The producer of the vocations video “Fishers of Men” wants his Grassroots Films production company to touch the hearts of young men and women with the beauty of Christian truth.
BY BARB ERNSTER
February 11-17, 2007 Issue
Posted 2/6/07 at 8:00 AM
Joseph Campo is producer for Grassroots Films, the company that brought you “Fishers of Men.”
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based production company produced the fast-paced, contemporary inspirational DVD for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ vocation program.
Campo is also the director of St. Francis House, an apostolate of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and is director of Youth 2000 New York.
He spoke to Register correspondent Barb Ernster about “Fishers of Men” and the mission behind Grassroots Films.
Tell me about your background and how you came to be director of St. Francis House?
I grew up a Catholic in Long Island, N.Y., and went to Mass with my dad on Sundays. When I got older I became a photographer, and I was sort of an entrepreneurial character. I wasn’t always going to Mass every Sunday in those days, but I had a strong belief in God that has been with me my entire life.
In 1988, I had a conversion experience in Medjugorje, which turned my whole life upside down. I knew that everything I learned about my Catholic faith was true, and it changed my view of the world.
Before my conversion, I had seen Father Benedict Groeschel and Father Glenn Sudano of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal preach at my local parish, and I thought, ‘Boy, if I ever hooked up with a group of guys, it would be this group.’ Six months later, after my conversion, I wanted to give my whole life for God, and someone told me to contact the Friars.
I wasn’t working at the time, and so I spent some time with them and got acquainted with Father Groeschel. He had opened the St. Francis House for young men in 1967 in Brooklyn. The friars had reached a point where they couldn’t staff it full time and were going to close the house, but they asked me to look at it first. It was a natural fit for me, so I became director. That was 17 years ago.
Grassroots Films got started in an unusual way.
A young man who is now our director, Chuck Kinanne, came to New York as an intern in a film company and was staying at the house. Chuck’s first day of work in New York City was Sept. 11, 2001. He was there when the World Trade Center came down. He was only 18, from Rhode Island, and had lived on a farm all his life. Welcome to New York, right? I thought this young man came here to die. He made it, of course, and he went back to his family to grieve. After a while, I encouraged him to come back to New York. While he was here I looked at some of his work and saw how talented he was. I told him we would make films together. A good friend of ours, Father David Engo, who is featured in the “Fishers of Men” film, suggested we make films for God. That was five years ago. Now we have 10 to 15 people working on our films.
Your company is certainly very different from others of its kind.
Our goal is to captivate and change the way people feel about certain subjects. We want to give the audience what it is starving for: the Truth. For example, we’re doing a film called The Human Experience. Although this is a pro-life film, I can promise you it will never mention abortion. We’re taking the positive approach about the beauty of life in order to change the way people feel and think about life, about babies, about each other.
We’re all children of God. Basically that is the mission of Grassroots Films. MTV never says, “Brought to you by Satan and all of his cohorts.” And our films will never say, “Brought to you by Jesus Christ and all the angels and saints in heaven,” but they are.
Not every film we do is necessarily a Catholic film, but everything we do will have morals and courageous people in it. The priesthood was a pretty good place to start.
The point is to preach to the unchurched, and to get our message out to the world. That’s what we did with “Fishers of Men.” We made it for the people who are not priests and not in seminary, to show that the priesthood is a challenge. This is for real men. Catholics, of course, are going to watch our films, and they should. But the messages in our films are for everyone, to make them see and think.
The way we use music in the films also helps you have a spiritual experience. Music does something that no other sound does. It bypasses reason and logic and goes directly to the soul. It’s perfectly natural for a human being’s soul to reach for their Creator, and music is a vehicle to do that.
Many people are familiar with your vocational film, “Fishers of Men.” How did that start?
We were filming “God on the Streets of New York,” a Eucharistic procession with the monstrance blessed by John Paul II for vocations, for the vocation director in the Archdiocese of New York. Father Ed Burns [Executive Director of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Vocations] was there. I spoke to him while we were filming and I sent him a copy of the film along with several other films, including the World Youth Day in Cologne. He called me and contracted for us to do a DVD to go along with the Fishers of Men vocation program that was already in place. Now the DVD has become the program.
When we showed “Fishers of Men” to about 600 people in Yonkers, N.Y., at the Catholic Underground, a young lady told us, “I know I can’t be a priest, but this film strengthens me for whatever I do in life. It will help me follow my vocation.”
They’re showing this in seminaries, high schools and churches. My suggestion is that they show it to second graders. Where I come from, little boys want to save the world. They want to be police officers and firemen. Why not give them the option of saving souls? That’s the priesthood. And you have to give it to them before adolescence. If you do, then adolescence will be formed with this in the heart.
You have completed at least eight films with several more in production. How are they being used and how are they distributed?
Most of our films are being distributed by our website (grassrootsfilms.com) and through several distributors. Our largest distributor is for “Fishers of Men,” through the USCCB’s office, which has done a tremendous job promoting it. They have received requests for the film from 17 other countries, and it’s now available in Spanish. We have some people working on getting our films into the educational system.
Most people will say our films are fast paced and modern. The language today is in the media, in television and movies. The young men at the house here understand the language because they’re part of the MTV generation and they will save the John Paul II generation. There are many times I step back and let them make certain decisions on things because they’re able to see both sides of it.
What other upcoming projects are you anticipating?
Besides [making] The Human Experience, I was recently in Minneapolis to meet with Connie Schneider, who is in charge of the Children’s Program for the World Apostolate of Fatima. We may do a DVD about the children’s prayer day at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., and it may also involve a film about Our Lady of Fatima.
September 22, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Dear Friends of Grassroots Films,
I am pleased to announce the release of our latest film The Human Experience. The scheduled release date is Saturday October 20th 2007 at 8pm, and will be held at Kellenberg Memorial High school in Uniondale, Long Island. You are invited! If you plan on attending please R.S.V.P. by e-mailing clifford@grassrootsfilms.com. In the meantime you can view the Official trailer on our website, we would love to hear your thoughts.
God Bless,
Grassroots Films
Grassroots Films
119 Eagle Street
Brooklyn, New York 11222
tel: 718 349 7622
fax: 718 349 1558
web: http://www.grassrootsfilms.com
November 24, 2007 at 6:28 am
For all those in the Washington, DC area, there will be a pre-screening of the film sponsored by the Dominican House of Studies. The film will be shown Friday November 30 and Saturday December 1. Most of the seats have been sold out already, but there are tickets available for the Saturday 2:00pm showing at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. For more information, see our website at priory.dhs.edu/humanexperience.aspx.
Please spread the word!
December 14, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Movie Review
Review: what does it mean to be human?
New documentary searches for the meaning of life
By HENRIETTA GOMES
Catholic Herald Writer
With countless distractions in the modern world, many often forget what it truly means to be human. Where are we going? Why are we here? What is our purpose?
While many of the world’s citizens are constantly hustling and bustling to get from one place to the next, the new Grassroots Film production, “The Human Experience,” asks people to stop for a moment and truly ponder life through a documentary film that follows two fun-loving brothers, Jeff and Cliff Azize, on their search for answers to life’s deepest questions.
The film follows them as they take to the streets of New York City to live among the homeless during the coldest week in winter. Then they travel to Lima, Peru, with a group of surfers to serve as volunteers at an orphanage, where many of the young residents are handicapped, abused, abandoned or otherwise infirm. Their search for the ultimate meaning of life and experience of humanity finally takes them to a leper colony in Ghana, where they also speak with those living with HIV.
What they find amid even the deepest and most profound suffering might be unfathomable for a person without faith, but is stunningly awe-inspiring for those with even a vague semblance of faith.
People are living with hope and joy amid their physical condition, economic status or emotional distress. Their desire to live transcends their hardships and the fact that they see life as a gift is inspiring and uplifting. In a world, which so often is quick to tell them that they are worthless, they know the truth is contrary and that they have meaning. They are the bearers of light in the darkness. In a situation where one could easily fall into despair, their hope sustains them.
Through riveting cinematography and brilliantly choreographed music, the film takes its viewers on a soul-searching journey to ponder the ultimate meaning of life.
It is hard to forget Victor, a sweet five-year-old born without arms and only one leg, abandoned by his parents. The joyful, rambunctious child with an infectious smile and mischievous giggle simply desires to live, and by his presence encourages others in the home to do the same.
Grassroots Films, founded by Joe Campo, is an independent film company based in Brooklyn, N.Y., that created the Gabriel Award winning film, “Fishers of Men,” about the priesthood.
Interspersed with interviews with Alveda C. King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr.; Father Richard John Neuhaus, publisher of First Things magazine; Anne Halpine, founder of World Youth Alliance; and others, the film tugs on viewers’ hearts and challenges them to seek what it means to truly live.
Watching the film is a transformative experience and will affirm the idea that life is a precious gift worth living with great passion, love, compassion, hope and joy.
The film is also a profound lesson that the brotherhood of humanity transcends race, color, economic status and health.
Without any explicit mention of social and moral issues that plague our time, the film is completely pro-life, pro-love and pro-dignity.
The film’s implicit religious undertones are evidenced through a brief clip of a procession of the Blessed Sacrament in Ghana, and in mentions of faith and God during interviews.
By the end of the film, viewers will have cried, laughed and will be awe-struck wanting more. “The Human Experience” is a must-see for those who suffer, live and breathe.
At a time when people are desperately craving truth, meaning and purpose, “The Human Experience” will touch the deep recesses of hearts through the testaments of courage, faith, hope and love.
The film is a captivating wake-up call to a world caught in the midst of utilitarianism.
Through the experience of humanity, the meaning of life is discovered. Fulfillment is found in understanding the simplicity and profundity of the beauty, richness and grandeur of life. Prepare to be transformed.
Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com
See it
The production company is currently working with distributors to bring the film to a wider audience by January. grassrootsfilms.com.
(Source: The Arlington Catholic Herald, Dec. 6-12, 2007, p. 5)