HOLY MOLY

Martin Scorsese Will Produce Doc Featuring Pope Francis’ Last On-Camera Interview

The film legend just joined the filmed as a producer.

Martin Scorsese is producing a new documentary that will feature the last on-camera interview Pope Francis gave before his death.

The film was developed by Scholas Occurrentes, a global educational movement founded by the Pope.

Titled Aldeas — A New Story, the film is a feature-length documentary that details the short films produced by Aldeas—a cinematic movement that champions films from countries across the world to educate people on the diverse range of thoughts, ideas, and stories that exist in our communities.

In a statement released before his death, Pope Francis wrote about the importance of the Aldeas project.

“Aldeas’ is an extremely poetic and very constructive project because it goes to the roots of what human life is, human sociability, human conflicts… the essence of a life’s journey.”

According to Variety, the documentary will feature Scorsese’s visit to his ancestral hometown in Sicily, previously unheard conversations between the filmmaker and the Pope, and the very last on-camera interview the pontiff gave.

“Now, more than ever, we need to talk to each other, listen to one another cross-culturally. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by sharing the stories of who we are, reflected from our personal lives and experiences. It helps us understand and value how each of us sees the world. It was important to Pope Francis for people across the globe to exchange ideas with respect while also preserving their cultural identity, and cinema is the best medium to do that,” Scorsese said.

The release date for Aldeas — A New Story has not been announced yet. But if you’re eager to watch films about Pope Francis now, there’s plenty to choose from.

Director Wim Wenders’ Pope Francis: A Man of His Word is available to buy or rent. So is 2021’s Francesco. In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis is available to stream on Hulu.

And of course, there’s The Two Popes, Netflix’s Oscar-nominated movie about Pope Francis’ meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. If you must, we suppose, there’s Conclave, too—though that’s more for the memes.

Clare DonaldsonEditorial Intern

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