PBS.Independent Lens-SCENES FROM A PARISH.Dec 29,2009.WS-PDTV.XviD.Ekolb

SCENES FROM A PARISH December 29 at 10 PM.2009 When a young, irreverent priest arrives at Saint Patrick Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he discovers the unexpected — boiling ethnic tensions in a changing working-class community. Filmed over four years, follow the wildly diverse personal stories of Father Paul O’Brien and his unruly flock, as they struggle to hold onto faith in the face of desperate circumstances. “God is speaking all the time, often through the least likely people.” —Father Paul O’Brien, St. Patrick’s Parish Lawrence, Massachusetts is a New England textile town that was founded by Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Potato Famine. Subsequent waves of immigrants from Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe and Canada flooded in through the decades, providing labor for the wool mills scattered around town, and earning Lawrence the nickname “Immigrant City.” Today, the mills are closed and textile jobs have moved overseas, leaving Lawrence one of the poorest municipalities in the United States. The primarily Irish enclave of South Lawrence is aging as the younger generation leaves for better economic opportunities. Still, Lawrence’s reputation as a welcoming place for newcomers has attracted another wave of immigrants: mostly younger people from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Their music fills the streets, their language is spoken in schools and churches and their businesses are filling the previously shuttered storefronts of the economically stressed downtown. James Rutenbeck’s film SCENES FROM A PARISH looks at issues of community, tolerance and immigration from the perspective of a Catholic priest who is trying to hold his disparate congregation together. Father Paul O’Brien’s own ancestors came to New England from Ireland in the 1800s, and he graduated from Harvard University alongside his friend (and now Tonight Show host) Conan O’Brien. As an upper-middle class, highly educated young man who came to St. Patrick’s in Lawrence from suburban Boston, O’Brien is himself something of an outsider to the locals. Father O’Brien insists on conducting Mass in English and Spanish, and works diligently to build a community center and pantry to feed the area’s poor, many of whom are of color. But some of his non-Hispanic parishioners are finding it hard to love their new neighbors, and are feeling squeezed out and under siege. Some begin to resent the money and time Father O’Brien is spending on the center, and even claim that there was no poverty or hunger in their community before the Spanish-speaking people arrived. Even the homeless encampment on the edge of town is segregated, with different areas designated for white squatters and minorities. Meanwhile, Bobby McCord, his sister and his single mother are of Irish ancestry, and they suffer from a different kind of social marginalization. They are lower income, and Bobby is mentally disabled. Bobby is driven by a pure desire to help other people, and spends his days volunteering at local nursing homes and at the church, sweeping sidewalks and doing other odd jobs. But he is different, and is regarded with a cautious indifference by the community. His sister and mother are virtually ignored. There are redemptive stories of other parishioners struggling to overcome their unease by extending themselves in service to their new neighbors. One couple helps a young mother and former gang member with a security deposit for an apartment. Another coaches Rosaura Vásquez who wants to join the all-white church choir. Underpinning SCENES FROM A PARISH is the idea of home and belonging, something deeper than simple matter of ethnicity. The film suggests that change can be unsettling—and even frightening—no matter what our histories or values might be. It may bring out the best or the worst in us and prompts us to consider our better natures and how can overcome our fear of the unfamiliar. Format : AVI Length : 699 MiB for 1h 26mn 40s 200ms Codec : XviD Source : PDTV Language : English US Subtitles : None Genre : Documenatary Video #0 : MPEG-4 Visual at 979 Kbps Aspect : 608 x 336 (1.810) at 29.970 fps Audio #0 : MPEG Audio at 134 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz Enjoy! Ekolb

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