Chilean Filmmaker Sets Lens on Disgraced Priest, Catholic Church, by Ed Shelton, Santiago Times, November 10, 2011

Chilean Filmmaker Sets Lens on Disgraced Priest, Catholic Church

By Ed Shelton
Santiago Times
November 10, 2011

http://www.santiagotimes.cl/culture/films/22866-chilean-filmmaker-sets-lens-on-disgraced-priest-catholic-church

Photo by Juan Salmoral/Flickr.

Filmmaker Matias Lira has been awarded around US$28,000 for development work on his project El Santo as part of CORFO’s 13th annual Concurso de Cine. In total the scheme will award US$500,000 between 21 films.

Speaking to The Santiago Times, Lira said the project he was developing would not focus entirely on the story of Karadima but would look more generally at the power of the Catholic Church in Chile and its relationship with government and the establishment. Something that he finds disturbing, he added.

Lira said: “I went to a Catholic school but I don’t feel comfortable with what is happening with the Catholic Church right now. It is not specifically about sexual abuse but it is about the power that people give the church. And it seems to be getting stronger every year.”

“My last film Drama was about theater students who experimented with their own lives to put things on stage and to see how far they can go, to push themselves. This is the same thing, it is about how far people can go for power,” he added.

Lira said that the money would be used to research the project and for the development of a script, and that the film might get made in two or three year’s time.

Among the other winners was a project from Easter Island filmmaker Leonardo Pakarati who received a similarly-sized grant toward the development of his film Kuhana Rapa Nui.

The documentary will follow a woman in her sixties and an eight-year-old girl, both from Rapa Nui, who set off to Europe to visit museums in cities such as Paris and London where treasures taken from the islands in the last century are exhibited.

Pakarati told The Santiago Times that the objects held spiritual power for the islanders.

“It is important as it is a journey to reunite us with these pieces that have great importance for us. They have the spirit and power of our ancestors. They are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.” He added, “they are linked with our oral traditions and history.”

CORFO said the competition showed that the film industry is growing in Chile with this year’s competition attracting 360 entrants, twice as many as last year. Since 2001 it has seen US$6 million invested in films, both short form and long form, and documentary, fiction and animation.

If El Santo does get made, it is likely to be a controversial film. Karadima, 81, who administered to wealthy Chileans as director of the El Bosque parish during the 1980s, was last month spared prosecution in Chile following a seven-month investigation because of concern about the statute of limitations for such crimes.

This came despite an investigation by the Vatican finding him guilty in January, defrocking him and sentencing him to a life of prayer and penance.

The three men who have accused the priest intend to continue their search for justice despite his maintaining his innocence and the failure of the criminal case.

The scandal of sexual abuse in the Catholic church has already been the subject of a theater play in Santiago. The play Protocolo was staged in August of this year.

By Ed Shelton editor@santiagotimes.cl