"Don't Hold Back": on making films about saints
by Jerome and Marylou Bongiorno
This weekend, PBS will be broadcasting two documentaries about the lives of Mother Cabrini and Mother Seton by Jerome and Marylou Bongiorno, a Newark, NJ-based film-making couple. These films, which will offer viewers an in-depth view into the lives of these two extraordinary women, demonstrate not only the extensive research the Bongiornos have done, but also their sincere personal engagement with these women on a spiritual level. I asked them to write a reflection on their experience of depicting the lives of these two American saints.
Those living in the NYC-area can tune into channel 13 to watch the film on Mother Seton on 3/28 at 8 pm and Mother Cabrini on 4/4 at 8 pm. Click here to find your local listings. You can also find the films on PBS’s website.
We guess that the two burning questions we had, even before we started making these documentary films on Saints Elizabeth Ann Seton and Frances Xavier Cabrini were:
1. What is meant by the statement: "It’s not what I want, it’s what God wants.”
2. And what makes someone so special that the Catholic Church declares them a saint?
And answering these questions was less about learning about the lives of Mothers Seton and Cabrini, but much more about what this meant for our own lives, as Catholic filmmakers.
In fact, much of what is presented in the films was created to help us understand more about ourselves and how we can learn valuable life lessons from these two powerhouse women saints.
When you delve into the lives of Saints Seton and Cabrini and you look at the practical day to day decisions that they had to make, and see the machinations that they went through, and how they had to deal with other people who were often reluctant to support them, and had to deal with issues of raising money for their worthy causes to help the poor, it gave us, the filmmakers, something that we could insert into our lives.
Mother Cabrini never had the upfront financial resources for her countless projects but she always put the projects into the hands of God. Now, for us, that attitude translates into “not having any fear.” We say: “Well, it’s in the hands of God.” But is it? Do we really believe that? Or are we just saying some sort of cliched statement? Because when it comes right down to it, are we really going “all out” for it? Or are we holding back?
And for these inspiring women, there was no holding back. And the reason they didn’t hold back was because they believed they had God behind them. And that belief is the piousness we cite in the film, the quality that made them saints.
Well, if we really feel God is behind us, then we shouldn’t hold back either, right? And if we are holding back, in many cases, it’s probably because we don’t have enough faith to feel that God is behind us. So, why did they have the faith and we don’t? And, how do you get that faith?
Well, that’s why you study the lives of the saints. It’s like anything else, to become a good musician or doctor or…whatever, you learn from the pros, immerse yourself in their lives and adopt their techniques and attitudes. These sainted women, they were real people, with challenges and tragedies to endure, just like the rest of us, but what distinguishes them is their faith, their strong faith in God which made them intense, passionate and fearless about everything they did, so they didn’t hold back.
And neither will we.
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Also check out Stephen’s review of Cabrini, his reflection on a field trip to the Cabrini shrine, and A.W. Strouse’s reflection on the shrine and immigration.
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