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INDEPENDENT LENS “SCENES FROM A PARISH”
DECEMBER 29 AT 10 PM
EIGHT/KAET-TV

A Portrait of an Urban Congregation in Turmoil

In 2001, Paul O’Brien, an irreverent, young, Harvard-educated Catholic priest arrived in Lawrence, Massachusetts to take over the reins of Saint Patrick’s Parish. A hundred years ago, Lawrence was a thriving mill town and Saint Patrick’s was home to a large community of immigrant Irish mill workers. Today, the mills are closed, the Irish-American families are a dwindling minority and a new generation of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Vietnam and Cambodia are looking to Saint Patrick’s as their spiritual home. Father Paul quickly discovers that trying to foster an inclusive community in this hard hit, multicultural parish is no mean feat. Scenes from a Parish, directed by James Rutenbeck, will premiere on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009 at 10 p.m.

Filmed over four years, Scenes from a Parish tells a story that is being played out in churches across the country, as neighborhood parishes struggle to serve the needs of communities transformed by rampant economic and cultural change. We watch as Father O’Brien embarks on an ambitious plan to build a church-based meal center that will feed the hungry of Lawrence. He enlists high-profile allies for help, including his Harvard classmate Conan O’Brien, while dealing with angry old timers who are dismayed by the rapid changes transforming their once traditional parish; a place that offers Spanish services and aid to members with new and frightening problems like addiction and gang activity. The story comes to life through the personal stories of several parishioners who come to the church seeking fellowship, but face obstacles that threaten to drive them apart.

Long-time parishioner Frank Martin, along with other, older parishioners, questions Father Paul’s hunger initiative. He’s been helping the poor in his city for 40 years, but now finds the personal lives of those in need more and more perplexing, and his compassion is waning. Edna McGregor is also suspicious. Father O’Brien, she thinks, is neglecting his older parishioners and spending too much time playing basketball with the tough-looking neighborhood teens in the parish center. And when Saint Patrick outreach volunteer Peggy Oliveto visits a group of homeless families, she befriends a single mother named Theresa Santell. Over the years, their unlikely friendship grows more complicated, as Theresa’s life circumstances and choices test the limits of Peggy’s Christian love.

Elvys Guzman has arrived from the Dominican Republic, sporting tattoos, piercings and a menacing look. But in reality, Elvys is a sensitive soul trapped in a gangster’s body and involvement in Saint Patrick’s has transformed his life. Rosaura Vasquez, also from the Dominican Republic, must overcome her fears about singing in the all-Anglo choir.

Scenes from a Parish attempts to define that elusive and fragile entity known as community. The film closely observes the faithful, who aspire to a communal “body of Christ,” wrestle with their differences and with the everyday tensions threatening to undermine their Catholic ideals. Although set in Massachusetts, Scenes from a Parish tells a universal story—one that is unfolding in communities across America, as new neighbors forge paths towards acceptance and a positive, inclusive future for their community.

About Eight/KAET-TV
Eight, Arizona PBS specializes in the education of children, in-depth news and public affairs, lifelong learning, and the celebration of arts and culture — utilizing the power of noncommercial television, the Internet, educational outreach services, and community-based initiatives. The PBS station began broadcasting from the campus of Arizona State University on January 30, 1961. Now more than 80 percent of Arizonans receive the signal through a network of translators, cable and satellite systems. With more than 1.3 million viewers each week, Eight consistently ranks among the most-viewed public television stations per capita in the country. Arizonans provide more than 60 percent of the station’s annual budget. For more information, visit www.azpbs.org.

Eight is a member-supported service of Arizona State University.