“The overall level of the festival was very high. Most of the awarded films were the works of national media production teams. It is a great honour for me to be able to represent the University so strongly tied with Saint John Paul II”, said director Damian Bieniek a moment after receiving the second Award in the category Television Programmes and Shows of the 38th International Catholic Film and Multimedia Festival Immaculata 2024. He added: “We have plans to intensify our film production at KUL. I mean national and international festivals. The following edition of the Immaculate Festival will feature a documentary The Anatomy of Freedom about doctor Zygmunt Klukowski”.
Pictures for the documentary Put Out Into the Deep, where the collaborators and witnesses to the life of the Polish Pope speak about the history, present, and future of the Vatican’s John Paul II Foundation were shot by the KUL crew composed of Monika Stojowska, Damian Bieniek, and Paweł Piwowarski, led by Paweł Rozwód. They collaborated closely with Msgr. Paweł Ptasznik, President of the Foundation, Fr. Dariusz Giers, KUL Rector’s representative for the promotion of an integral development of the human person, administrator of the Foundation, and Fr. Dr. Paweł Rytel-Adrianik, head of the Polish section of Vatican News. The shots were made in Rome in February 2024. “The film is also related to Lublin as it features people associated with the John Paul II Foundation House, scholarship recipients, students of the Catholic University of Lublin. I acknowledge and rejoice at the news of the successes of the University, in this case the Catholic University of Lublin Academy of Modern Media and Communications. Keeping up with the times, we are able to cleverly use modern media in promoting the values and legacy left for the world by John Paul II, our professor”, stresses Rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, Fr. Prof. Mirosław Kalinowski, the patron of the media project dedicated to the Polish Pope.
KULWhen will the film screen?
“The University is in contact with the Vatican’s John Paul II Foundation. We hope to present the film to a wider audience in the fall. In October we celebrate two major anniversaries related to John Paul II and the establishment of the Foundation. We will keep you posted”, observes Monika Stojowska, deputy spokesperson of the University.
The Catholic University of Lublin Academy of Modern Media and Communications is one of the university’s strategic units. The video, press, photo, and social media sections designs and publishes a few hundred media spots per year. For the past four years, the Catholic University of Lublin has been at the forefront of Polish universities in terms of media activity.
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The Immaculata International Catholic Film and Multimedia Festival, held by the St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe Catholic Film Society, is to promote the development of film, television, radio, and multimedia productions that are in line with Catholic Social Teaching. Its underlying idea is to make the awarded works available to the general public, to select the most valuable films, and to promote them at home and abroad. This year saw the 38th edition of the festival.
KUL
