New EWTN Film Docudrama ‘Hope’ Focuses on The Story of Knock. The film is directed by Co Down filmmaker Campbell Miller.
‘Hope’ is a new EWTN Film Docudrama on the Apparitions at Knock, County Mayo, and the wider social and historical context of Ireland at the time, is scheduled for broadcast worldwide later this year by EWTN. It was filmed in Ireland with local actors and crew.
The film has been written and directed by County Down man Campbell Miller whose last film ‘Bravery Under Fire’ detailed the life of Fr Willie Doyle. The Fr Doyle biopic was screened in the Vatican, Rome and to millions of viewers worldwide through the EWTN network (SKY 589; Virgin Media 815). Mr Miller personally presented a copy of his work to Pope Francis.
Cambell Miller said: “It is a great honour to be given the task to dramatise and tell the story of the Knock Apparition. 1879 was a time when the Irish people were suffering greatly and this one supernatural moment changed life in Ireland forever giving the Irish people hope and comfort in one of the darkest times in our history. Knock of course has attracted millions of visitors as well as personal pilgrimages by two Popes.
“Our filming, research and interviews demonstrated to us that Knock, even today in Ireland’s secular society, has its place in the heart of the Irish.”
With the 140th Anniversary of the Apparitions at Knock, Ireland’s national Marion Shrine, the docudrama ‘Hope’ looks at how Knock, a small Irish village in county Mayo has become a focal point of pilgrimage visited by over a million pilgrims every year. For the village inhabitants in the nineteenth century, life changed either directly or indirectly due to what happened on that rainy night in August of 1879.
The EWTN film production tells the story of life in Ireland at that time, and the unbearable hardship and suffering the Irish people were going through following the Great Famine of 1845 when about one million people died and at least a million more emigrated.
Hope Director Miller added: “High quality re-enactments document everyday life before the apparition, showcasing the poor living conditions the Irish people had under British rule. We focus on the food crisis, the land war, and emigration. Then that miraculous moment when Our Lady appeared to 15 witnesses, changing their lives forever and giving Irish people hope and comfort when they needed it the most.
“The dramatisation will be intertwined with various interviews with people whose lives have been touched by Knock, from people seeking miraculous cures, the everyday pilgrims, to the shrine’s handmaids, relatives of the original witnesses, current parish priest Fr Richard Gibbons and Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland.
“The docudrama will cover the two investigations completed by the Catholic Church into the Apparition and show with definitive proof that Our Lady, the Queen of Ireland, did appear that night.”
The film will be released in early 2020
