Speaker says the Church can have a positive impact in Hollywood

By Sean Gallagher

“Beauty will save the world.”

These words of the 19th-century Russian writer Fydor Dostoevsky were quoted by Pope John Paul II in his 2000 “Letter to Artists.”

The were also spoken by Barbara Nicolosi at a meeting of the Indianapolis chapter of Legatus, an organization of Catholic business leaders, during their Feb. 17 meeting at Meridian Hills Country Club in Indianapolis.

Nicolosi is the founder and executive director of Act One, a non-profit training and formation program for Hollywood writers and executives.

Yet while she quoted and agreed with Dostoevsky, Nicolosi freely acknowledged that much can also be lost through ugliness. And so the objective in her work at Act One is to promote the creation of beauty in the entertainment industry through the work of her students.

“I’ll tell you what the goal is,” she said. “It’s that entertainment would heal instead of wound, that it would inspire and uplift instead of degrade and dehumanize, that it would stretch people and motivate them, and make nobility and heroism attractive instead of popularizing crass vulgarity and animalistic behavior. That’s the goal.”

At Act One, she is helping Catholics and other Christians who want to work in Hollywood to hone their artistic talents and professional skills and integrate these with their faith in God.

“We’re trying to influence the culture of entertainment from within,” Nicolosi said, “principally by, first of all, giving a witness of life that’s different from what they’ll find in other creative people that are surrounding them.”

But in assisting her students to be both committed to their faith as well as skilled artists, she also is helping them earn
“a place at the table” where the storylines and characters of tomorrow’s movies and TV shows are crafted.

According to Nicolosi, those currently sitting at the table are representatives of “Madison Avenue, Wall Street and the creative elites in Beverly Hills.

“We want someone to sit there at the table, who’s earned the right to be there, who says, ‘Yeah, but is it good for people?’ That’s all we want to do,” she said.

In addition to those Catholics and Christians who are actively seeking to work in Hollywood, Nicolosi also thinks that average TV and movie viewers can also make a difference.

The first way to do this, she shared with her listeners, was through prayer. After asking how many of them had seen a movie or TV show recently that had “made [them] groan,” and had most raise their hands, she asked how many of them at that moment had said a prayer. Very few acknowledged that they had.

“You think the problem is Hollywood,” she said. “What I just showed you is the problem.

“I really think that the first step to any kind of cultural renewal is going to be the people of God on their knees and in their hearts asking God, ‘Give us beauty back, please.’ ”

Nicolosi also emphasized the importance of the faithful giving encouragement and material support to young people interested in becoming artists, in a real sense helping the Church reclaim the role of being a patron of the arts, which it had been in centuries past.

She also told her audience to let people in the entertainment industry know when they are disappointed with movies or TV shows that have communicated immoral messages.

Yet she advised that they share their message carefully, saying that those to whom they write “are vulnerable to praise.” She recommended that viewers let down by a particular episode of a television show go to its website and express that thought there, prefacing such remarks with the fact that they have liked the show in the past and will watch in the future for improvement.

Nicolosi is convinced that all of these efforts brought together are already making a real difference in Hollywood.

“When I came to Hollywood 10 years ago, there was like one ministry serving the Christians who worked in the industry,” she said. “Now there’s like 15. It’s amazing. There are so many things going on to network, mentor, train the next generation.”

But because it may take a long time for that next generation to move into places of leadership in the entertainment industry, Nicolosi pleaded for patience and for all Catholics and Christians to remain engaged in promoting beauty.

“We’re living in challenging times,” she said. “And the temptation for the Christian is to head for the hills and be like Jonah, up under our gourd plant, waiting for God to rain down his anger on the unholy. We haven’t gotten that mandate yet. Right now, we can still be in the middle of this.”

(Those interested in the work of Act One can learn more about it at the website www.actoneprogram.com.) †