RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal
BY BRYAN ROURKE
Journal Staff Writer
Holy Water-Gate: Abuse Cover-Up in the Catholic Church, a documentary film about sexual abuse by priests, will get its first general-audience screening in Rhode Island next week at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence.
The 56-minute movie by Mary Healey-Conlon of Warren, a lecturer in communications and film at the University of Rhode Island, will be shown April 18-24 at the South Main Street theater,
The independent film, five years in the making, premiered earlier this year in Brookline, Mass. Healey-Conlon went $180,000 in debt to make the movie, which won her the CINE Golden Eagle Award. Previous recipients include Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Ken Burns.
Holy Water-Gate presents interviews with victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse, as well as church officials..
One of the first images in the film is of Healey-Conlon's grandfather, Jim Healey, one of the first ordained lay deacons in Rhode Island. He was a communicant of St. Matthews Church in Cranston, where the Rev. James Silva was once pastor. In 1995, Father Silva was convicted of sexual abuse.
Posted by kshaw at April 15, 2005 03:05 AM