The young Peruvian Catholic Cristian García, director of BienAventurados Films, an audiovisual production company from Peru that won the so-called “Catholic Oscar” from the Vatican, asked for help to continue bringing more souls closer to God through cinema.
Cristian, of Augustinian spirituality, founded BienAventurados Films in 2018. To date he has created more than 15 short films, of which “Conversation”, winner of the Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival in Rome.
This Festival, known as the “Oscar” awards of Catholic cinema, is a contest sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture that recognizes the best films with “universal moral values and positive models” in the world.
Cristian told EWTN News that when he was 15 years old, shortly after his Confirmation and after taking some acting courses, he felt the call to make films so that “people return to God”, in return for “all that good he does for me,” he said.
In this sense, “Conversation”, his first short film, tells the story of a young man far from the faith who meets Jesus, present in the Eucharist.
In dialogue with ACI Prensa, García said that his production company seeks to “return the public’s gaze to our capacity for God, through stories with high-quality and accessible transcendent messages, based on pre-evangelization and culture of values.”
He pointed out that today’s young people are exposed on social networks to “messages that set aside human dignity” and that they want to be “an answer to this society that demands content of transcendence, but above all, to turn our gaze to God” .
He explained that pre-evangelization is similar to confirmation catechesis, since it means “preparing the heart” of people “so that they can later receive God’s message.”
For this reason, most of the productions deal with topics taught at the beginning of catechesis such as “freedom, human dignity, the difference between good and evil”, and not directly in later formation, such as “the liturgy, the faith , the Holy Spirit, God the Father,” he said.
The goal is “to reach people who are not necessarily looking for content of faith” and to be “a bridge so that non-believers or those who fight with the Catholic Church can approach. Like an outstretched hand bringing you closer back home,” she added.
García told ACI Prensa that the production company seeks to become a non-profit association, which is why they launched the “100Aventurados” campaign, which seeks 100 donors to help them raise 20,000 soles (a little over 5,000 dollars).
The amount will be used to finance their paperwork and cover the distribution costs of “Agorafobia”, a new series of short films about resilience and frustration in the pandemic in Peru. Donors will get free early access to the series, he said.
“Each small collaboration is highly valued and encourages us to continue with this purpose that God has placed in our path,” he concluded.
For more information you can enter your accounts Facebook, Instagram Y Youtube. If you wish to collaborate with the projects of this Catholic audiovisual production company, you can click on the following link:
Young winner of the Vatican’s “Catholic Oscar” asks for help to make more cinema for God