Mediaspirit Festival 2008

St. Elizabeths Catholic High School ,  525 New Westminster, 

Thornhill,  Ontario,  L4J 7X3,  Canada .

Tuesday, May 27    4:00 – 8:00 PM  Presentations and Pizza

productions by youth featuring Spirit and Religious Faith

Photo, Video, Narrative, Poetry, Sound, Music, Drama, Dance, Graphic Design, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, Lyrics, Melody, Dub, Rap, Posters, Banners, Oil, Watercolour, etc., and any combination of these media - All reasonable sizes and formats

Real-time productions should normally be 30 seconds to 3 minutes in duration

Productions based on both illustration and conceptual design are eligible

Five Awards of Excellence: $100.00 Each

-         For Social Justice Theme

-         for Honouring everyday experience

-         For Using Spiritual Potential of their Media

-         For Witness of Religious Faith

-         For Originality

FOR SUBMISSION  PROCEDURES  AND FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE KINDS OF SUBMISSIONS ELIGIBLE SEE THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BACK OF THIS SHEET.

Links:  For updates on the festival and additional information, including past festivals: www.questprogram.com For other materials on the World Youth Day theme: www.wyd2008.org

Also see the website of Sarah Hall and her many links to other sites featuring art, spirit and faith http://www.sarahhallstudio.com/links 

Contacts: F. Coffey, St. Elizabeths Catholic HS 525 New Westminster Thornhill ON L4J 7X3 Canada    Tel 905-882-1460    Fax 905-882-5074, Email mediaspirit2008@yahoo.com  

Surprised By Spirit  - Thematic Guidelines

No one has seen Spirit but we know of it from its fruits, its effects. No one can see Spirit, but with the right means, the effects of Spirit can be noticed. It starts with a pure heart of faith. After that, many features of most non-verbal or extra-verbal media (such as photography and sculpture) are ideal means for noticing Spirit. No one can show Spirit directly: only God can do that. But everyone can witness to Spirit in their words, and especially in their deeds and artistic productions.

Spirit is clear when the fruit of Spirit is noticed in daily or routine situations, especially when Spirit is present in desperate and negative situations. At the same time, the challenge is to notice and feature spirit in ordinary situations. For this we need to be capable of noticing real possibilities in familiar situations.

Choose one of these basic approaches:

Option I: Work with an explicitly religious subject, e.g. produce a sculpture of a religious figure, photo of a religious situation, object, etc.

Option II: Use the inherent qualities of  your chosen media (e.g., photo, video, music, etc.) to uncover or highlight signs of Spirit in situations that are not explicitly religious, in ordinary life, in human situations, in the life of persons, in and by the materials of your media.

Of course, even Option I requires a spiritual use of media, i.e., using features of your chosen media to show the inner spiritual character of your religious topic or subject. 

Your anticipated audience is an international one. Produce something that can address young people in any part of the world, such as those who will attend the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia this summer. Your work has to engage all cultures.

Award winners will be chosen by both a committee of experts and by participants of the festival on May 22 at St. Elizabeths, to be announced that evening.

For questions relating to subject matter, contact the organizers at mediaspirit2008AT yahoo.com

Procedural Points

1. Submissions must be received at St. Elizabeths by Friday, May 23, c/o F. Coffey.

2. Submissions must include an application using the form on the www.questprogram.com website.

3. All youth are eligible as submitters only if they have the recommendation of a school or institutional professional signing their application form.

4. Some works will be displayed on the Mediaspirit Website.

5. Contributors should participate in the festival, running from 4:00 – 8:00 pm on May 27, 2008.  

The festival is a unique gathering of young adults who will share their multi-media productions celebrating the spiritual.

The festival event will include display and viewing of productions, a peer-appreciation of productions by the other festival contributors, a review by festival adjudicators, presentations of awards, and an informal meal of pizza and refreshments. Each year, a new theme is proposed. The theme the year 2000 was "Creation".

There is no cost to those who submit entries or to the teacher sponsor of each school.

           Any High-school student accompanied by a teacher/chaplain. 

There are four monetary awards of Can $ 80.00 Can each

Category A: Fr David Bauer Award for Experience of Mystery in Everyday Life.

Category B: Luigi Mongi Award for Exploring a Gospel Experience.

Category C: Woodbridge K. of C. Award for Exploring Personal transformation.

Category D: Mediaspirit Award for Awakening Spirit and Faith.

The focus of this festival is to create productions that awaken inner spirit, deepen religious experience, and strengthen Christian faith.

Productions relevant to this festival will be attentive to the theme and

seek to awaken a spiritual feeling within viewer participants

be of a maximum length of 5 minutes for video, sound or slide-tape

give priority to emotional effect,  use elements of ordinary life

utilize any media, or electronic media, or a combination of both.

 

Coordinator of the Festival: Mediaspirit Group

Frank Coffey , Fr Bressani CHS, Woodbridge, On 

(Frank is on a Doctorate Study in Rome this year )   

          Fr Vito Marziliano, Epiphany Parish in Toronto

Marc & Barbara Bauer-Maison

Fr D. Bauer Quest Program, Stratford, Ontario, N4Z1H1    

Tel: (519) 271 0305  Fax: 271 0306   info@questprogram.com 

 

Babin, Pierre, "The New Era in Religious Communications" fortress Press, 1991.

Available from Toronto’s Anglican Bookstore. This is a lively exploration of the many opportunities for spiritual growth available in the new media and culture. It is jam-packed with dozens of concrete examples and practical insights.

2001 Event

 Sixth Annual Mediaspirit Festival

Youth Producing and Sharing Electronic Media Productions for Spiritual awakening, Faith growth, Strengthening Human Rights and Personal transformation

The Tree of Life

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."   Revelation, Ch22.1

Tree of Life Shows the Heart of Friendship

Even the ordinary tree gives a hint of that happiness
and healing we all need.  It gives shade from the
summer sun and shelter from the winter wind.  Still,
good friends and our care for them are much more than
shade and shelter.  No ordinary tree shows this
treasure.  Christ, mostly in hidden secret ways, is
the tree of life which 'continually bears so many
kinds of fruit,' and even gives 'leaves for the
healing of the nations.'

Today we have so many new opportunities for noticing
Christ's secret ways.  Our five senses --- even our
spiritual sensibilities --- have been extended with
cameras, microphones, and all the developments in
drama, music and art.  What hidden gifts and healing
of Christ can you uncover in your friendships?