Film puts spotlight on rebel priest
- by: Fiona Purdon
- From: The Courier-Mail
- November 02, 2011 12:00AM
AFTER EXILE: Filmmaker Peter Hegedus gives an insider’s look at the story of rebel priest Peter Kennedy (inset). Picture: Isaac Lawrence Source: The Courier-Mail
THE dramas surrounding rebel priest Peter Kennedy and his 2009 split with the Catholic Church will come under the spotlight with the world premiere of Peter Hegedus’s film The Trouble With St Mary’s at the Brisbane Film Festival.
Hegedus has already shown a preview of the documentary to Father Kennedy’s 500-strong South Brisbane congregation who followed the priest after he parted with the Catholic Church in 2009.
He delivered a homily to the congregation after mixed reactions to the film, which will be shown at Palace Barracks cinema on November 10.
“I wanted to show what happened to the community after they went into exile,” Hegedus says. “Some members of the community reacted strongly to the film. I explained to them that what you see in the mirror is not always what other people see.”
The Trouble with St Mary’s is one of 19 films competing for the $25,000 BIFFDOCS prize.
For 28 years Fr Kennedy was the priest at St Mary’s which Hegedus was attending in 2008 when he started filming the drama with co-producer Veronica Fury.
“I had to be objective, which at times was painful,” he says.
Hegedus’s other film in the festival – My America – is the result of a six-year personal journey examining what the US means to people around the world. He set up booths in Sydney, Tehran , Beijing , the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya and Budapest for the film.
For more information on the Brisbane Film Festival go to biff.com.au
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