Filmmaker's conversion a boon to groups helping the poor
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MARYKNOLL, N.Y. (CNS) — Gerard Thomas Straub recounted his “riches to rags” journey from atheistic, financially successful Hollywood television producer to secular Franciscan filmmaker documenting world poverty.
During a Lenten meditation for 200 people at Maryknoll headquarters, he described how his unexpected conversion during a 1995 visit to Collegio Sant’Isidoro, a Franciscan friary in Rome, led him to devote his talents to “putting the power of film at the service of the poor” by making documentaries about unsung nonprofit organizations.
He does not charge the groups for his work and he also travels the country showing the films and telling his conversion story to parish, high school and college groups and raising funds for the groups depicted.
“My initial impulse was to give ministries that are serving the poor a tool to raise funds. Film is so emotional and people respond to it,” Straub told Catholic News Service.
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