“It all started when I attended the first Holy Hour and witnessed something I did not expect”, Jorge Pareja, Director of “Alive: Who is there?”
Alive: Who is there?, the new Eucharistic movie highlighting the transformative power of the Holy Eucharist will debut for one day only in more than 700 theatres across the United States on Monday, April 25.
Directed and produced by Spanish filmmakers, the Bosco Films and Hakuna Films the documentary features the testimonies of five men and women who share how the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has transformed their lives.
The movie depicts four transforming real-life stories of Andrea, a teenager; Antonio and Sonsoles, a married couple; Carlos, an achiever and Jaime an alcoholic.
The 90-minute Spanish movie’s Director, Jorge Pareja, himself had experienced a Eucharistic revival of his own during a “holy hour” in eucharistic adoration.
“It all started when I attended the first Holy Hour and witnessed something I did not expect,” he shared in the movies website. “I remembered the masses of my childhood as something empty, artificial and automatic. But what was there was something totally different.”
The movie which debuted in Spain on April 9 and has been shown in 14 different countries in Latin America, Variety, the entertainment news portal reported. After its release in Spain, Variety reported, it was ranked in the Top 10 at the local box office and garnered over almost $270,000 by the end of 2021.
The debut in Mexico in November, earned another Top 10 ranking at the local box office, Variety reported. The entertainment news outlet also reported that the film sold almost 100,000 tickets in Colombia.
According to Variety, the documentary has been sold to independent film distributors across Europe for showings in Poland, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. Efforts are underway to show the film in theaters in Brazil, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, and Korea, Variety reported.
The peak in “Alive’s” international theatrical career comes with the U.S. release after the Fathom Events deal.
For its U.S. debut, new bonus content will be featured, including exclusive commentary from Diocese of Crookston Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who is the U.S. bishops’ conference chair on evangelization and catechesis and is leading a three-year national eucharistic revival that will begin in June of 2022.
Hakuna Films is associated with the Hakuna movement, which is dedicated to inspiring devotion to the Eucharist. Its founder, Father Jose Pedro Manglano, said in the press release that “one of the charisms of Hakuna is reaching the distant ones and one of the ways of reaching distant people is through movies.”
“That is why we decided to make ALIVE,” Father Jose said.
-CNA