Transcript of Interview with Anthony Ryan about The 13th Day Movie. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com
Listen Now to the audio version of the show.
The 13th Day at The Catholic Company.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/4003930/13th-Day/
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Chris Cash: Welcome to Catholic Spotlight. This is the Catholic Spotlight, the show where we talk about what’s new, cool and exciting in the Catholic marketplace. I’m your host Chris Cash, director of E-Commerce from catholiccompany.com, your source for all your Catholic needs.
Today in the Spotlight, we have Anthony Ryan; he is Director of Media Relations for Ignatius Press. And we’re going to be talking a little about The 13th Day today. Tony, glad to have you on the program.
Anthony Ryan: Chris, nice to be here, thank you.
Chris Cash: So, now this is a DVD and it’s a movie called The 13th Day. Can you tell us a little about what The 13th Day is?
Anthony Ryan: Sure. The 13th Day is a brand new feature film about the story of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. And this film was made in Europe. It’s really the first full length feature film about the dramatic story of Our Lady of Fatima in over 50 years. So, you know it’s something that’s pretty unique and we think it’s very well done, it tells a story really well.
Chris Cash: What made you decide to do this production after 50 years since the last when one I assume?
Anthony Ryan: Well, you know Ignatius Press actually is not the producer of this movie; we licensed the film for DVD distribution. So, the producers, you know we licensed it from the production company. The reason that they made this film is because they believe in the importance of the message of Our Lady of Fatima and there’s a very important message for our times. And so, they were driven by that faith that belief in you know the message that she came to give, so that’s really the reason they decided to make this film, to use the movie as a vehicle to you know to promote the message of Our Lady of Fatima.
Chris Cash: And is this movie, you said was made in Europe, is it done in English or is it subtitled or how is that done?
Anthony Ryan: Well, and the movie is made in English, so it was shot on location in both in Portugal. You know Fatima’s from the country of Portugal and also in England. The company that made it is a film company from England. So, shot on location in both countries, but they did film it in English. It does come with Spanish subtitles that are optional on the DVD, if anyone wants to you know use the Spanish subtitles, those on our DVD are available as well. But they did film it in English. And even though there are many Portuguese actors in this film including the three children are actually Portuguese. So, it does give a – you know real authenticity to the movie, they do speak English.
Chris Cash: And what is it about the message of Fatima that is so important to the church today?
Anthony Ryan: Well, you know the message of Our Lady of Fatima is it’s really the message of gospel, so whenever our lady has appeared to give a message and she usually she repeats what our Lord told us you know when he was on Earth. And basically, it’s a message of – its timeless, it’s a message of conversion, it’s a message of repentance, it’s a message of prayer, it’s a message of turning back to God. And she is our mother, she wants us to you know to live a life that’s closer to God, she wants us to get to heaven. And so, she comes to remind us of that. And this message had a certain sense of urgency too it. She said to the children you know that unless this message is her to responded to you know she gives prophecy and things that were bad things that would happen. And so, you know she came to give us a warning as well. So, not only is her message about you know our – you know getting to heaven and how to get the eternal life, but also about this life you know that if we would respond to her message of prayer, of conversion, of obeying the ten commandments of loving our neighbor, then you know things to better in this life. If we didn’t respond, you know the bad things would happen and you know among those things she predicted was World War II and the persecution of communism and the church would be persecuted. And those things came to pass as we know.
Chris Cash: And of course, a corner stone of prophecy is seeing something that actually does come true. So, it is very significant to be able to point to the fruit of the prophecy that to see that it actually did occur. Now, there were some also some miracles associated with Fatima, you want to talk a little about the miracles that occurred?
Anthony Ryan: Well, sure, I mean the main miracle – when you hear about the miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, you know the main miracle is that she told the children on the last apparition when she came the last time, which is October 13th, she would have a – a miracle would be performed that all would see who were there to convince them that the children were telling the truth. And the miracle was – is called the miracle of the Sun. And there were over 70,000 people there that day and you know Our Lady did – well God did perform the miracle of the sun. What happened was the Sun is an incredible miracle and it’s really dramatized well in this movie.
The Sun started to spin in the sky you know dance really in the sky, start moving all around in the sky, shooting of different kinds of colors. And then, after that performance it started to hurl itself towards the Earth. And of course, the people screamed in terror thinking you know it was the end of the world, and falling on their knees and you know begging for God’s mercy and anything you could think people would do if you know Sun was falling on the earth. And then, the Sun stopped and then went back to its place in the sky, so you know its incredible event. And there were you know newspapers there, now they too wrote about it and had pictures. And so, this miracle is documented, well documented not just by church authorities but by secular authorities. And so, that is you know the miracle that happened and that day it was raining as well, it was raining very hard. And you know so even with those rains the Sun came out and did this incredible series of movements and of course everything dried up pretty quickly.
Chris Cash: Now, is there anything specific about the movie that we should know about this particular filming?
Anthony Ryan: Well, yes, you know we think that it’s beautifully produced, it’s kind of a – it has an artistic approach to it. The two men who directed it who wrote the – who wrote and directed are both artist by training, painters. And so – and graphic artist, painters, graphic artist that these guys are named as Ian and Dominic Higgins, they are from England. And so, it’s kind of getting stylistic, artistic look to it, which is really kind of beautiful. You know and one reviewer said every image of the film is kind of like a little painting. And so, they approached it with that kind of look to really appeal to modern audiences who are you know pre-sophisticated, can be sophisticated when it comes to film, especially young people. And so, they had that in mind when they made it. So, it has a beautiful, you know artistic look to it and man it’s authentic in terms of the – being true to the story. In other words, its not you know sometimes a Hollywood film can use a lot of artistic license, poetic license and lot of what’s supposed to be a true story in a Hollywood film is actually not true. They make it up. This movie is based on the memoirs of Sister Lucia, and so we see the movie through the memoirs. And so, it’s authentic and really focuses on the actual events that happen through the eyes of Sister Lucia and the children. And so, its – you know has that authenticity about it as well. So, it’s beautifully, really beautifully produced and it’s authentic. And I think you know those are two things that really make a movie like this something it’s outstanding.
Chris Cash: Now, Ignatius is sponsoring a screening program that’s going around the country. Can you tell us a little about what is involved with this screening program and where people can go to find out more about it?
Anthony Ryan: Sure. Yes, we decided to – you know we have a lot of films that we license for distribution and they are great films, and you know we’re honored to be a part of any of these great films that come our way, that we help produce. But with this film, we decided to do something extra, because we are so strong in our believes and the importance of the message of this film, the message of Our Lady of Fatima for our times. So, we decided to use the film as a vehicle to really spread that message, so we came up with this screening program where groups, catholic organizations, parishes, schools, whoever anyone can buy a screening license and we have different packages they can buy to show the film, to have a film event. You know all we need is a DVD projector and you know a screen. I mean, you know some people have much more sophisticated equipment in a Parish or whatever setting, but anyone can do this.
And with the different packages that you can get through Ignatius Press, come number of DVD’s to sell. So you buy those at a discount with the package and you know it could be a fundraiser. So, you sell ‘em at the regular price and you know you make – you can make a real profit. We also send promotional materials, posters, flyers, other things that you can use to help promote your film event. We have tee-shirts, so you we designed a tee-shirt to go with the movie. You can buy tee-shirts to see, tee-shirt has been very popular. We have prayer cards et cetera. And it’s a – there are really nice packages and so, anyone can do that. And to find out more about it, you can go to our Website, Ignatius.com and there’s a information there. You could call there is a woman who is coordinating this and give you that number if that’s okay? It’s a toll free number 877-263-1263 and that is one of the numbers you can call to get more information about the screening. Or you can just go to Ignatius.com and there is a information on that Website about just getting packages to have your own screening of the film, 13th Day.
Chris Cash: Now, how far into the future do you anticipate doing these screenings? Right now, we’re recording this in October of 2009, but for those of you listeners out there in 2010 and beyond, you know what is the kind of the timeframe that this screenings will be available?
Anthony Ryan: Sure, yes, we’re going to have these ongoing you know in the future, we don’t have any time to – that we’re planning to you know just stop them. So, as I say you know the purpose of all this really is to have the, use the screening program to get the message of the movie out there, to use it as a vehicle for a Evangelization. It’s also a way of having a – an event that’s inspiring an entertainment. So it’s kind of like we have a event thing called Ignatius Night at the Movies that we’ve been doing for few years with a lot of our films, which is ongoing as well. So, this is similar to that, but this is a little more you know organized, there’s more things going on with this than we normally do at Saint Ignatius Night at the Movies kind of event.
So, this will be ongoing, so yes no matter when this interview is heard its very likely that we will continue to be to have this screening program available and people can to – go ahead and get a licensed package, get DVD’s, promotion tools, have their own filming done.
Chris Cash: All right, was there anything else you wanted to share with our listeners before we finish up here?
Anthony Ryan: Well, the – I like to tell people that the DVD, which will be available in December, it’s not available to the public yet. When it’s available, we have some really fine bonus things that come with the DVD; I’d like to tell people about. Again, we’ve got some things extra with this DVD that we haven’t done with other movies. We’ve kind of gone the extra mile so to speak. So, with the DVD, they get a 24 page companion booklet that has a – some great information, great articles about Fatima, about the whole story of Fatima, why it’s important. It’s tied in with the movie that we have articles in thereby Fulton Sheen who wrote a great article about Our Lady and her – Mary – it’s called Marry and the Muslims who connects with Our Lady and how she can be the one to help reach Muslims with the message of Christ. We have an article there by Father Andrew Apostoli, a foremost expert on Fatima in our times. Article in there by a Father Robert Fox who’s been a great expert on Fatima for years, good interviews with the film directors, such as a lot of great stuff in the booklet. And then with that we also we’re giving a nice little beautiful Fatima prayer card that comes with the DVD.
And also, we decided to put a rosary in with each DVD, and a rosary leaflet with all the prayers of the rosary, the mysteries of the rosary. So, each DVD will have their actual rosary, as well as the rosary leaflet and how to pray the rosary and the companion booklet. And again, the purpose of all that is we are – you know we want people to not just watch the movie, but we’re hoping that they will come away and inspire to live the message of Our Lady of Fatima, which includes praying the rosary.
Chris Cash: Well, thank you Tony. It’s been great to have you on this show and I hope to have a chance to talk with you again sometime.
Anthony Ryan: My pleasure, Chris. Thanks for having me on.
Chris Cash: God bless.
Anthony Ryan: All right, same to you.
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Transcript of Interview with Anthony Ryan about The 13th Day Movie. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com
Listen Now to the audio version of the show.
The 13th Day at The Catholic Company.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/4003930/13th-Day/