About celebrating our Vincentian Family Film Festival, Finding Vince 400

28 August 20

Dear Vincentian Family Leader,

May the peace of the Lord be always with us!

As you know, we will be celebrating our Vincentian Family Film Festival, Finding Vince 400, from 18 –

21 October 2018 at Castel Gandolfo (Rome), Italy. Our purpose is to champion storytellers and

challenge audiences with film and art that change our perspective on poverty and help us globalize

charity.

During the Film Festival, three panel discussions are scheduled to assist filmmakers, storytellers, and

artists to take a keen responsibility to inform the world of social issues prevalent today.

PANEL 1: The Hollywood Responsibility – will highlight the subtext of poverty, social struggles, and

migration in the mainstream feature film. Topics will include: what is the responsibility of the filmmaker

who tell these stories? what inspires these filmmakers to tell these stories in the way that they do?

PANEL 2: The New Media Responsibility – will highlight new media, millennial based content, that

expresses and reports on poverty and social issues on a worldwide scale, giving access to audiences

that may not get information from traditional news sources. Topics will include: what is the

responsibility of the documentarian who tell these stories? what inspires these documentarians to tell

these stories in the way that they do? how can we continue to grow this industry?

PANEL 3: The Citizen Journalist Responsibility – will highlight upstart journalists, filmmakers, and

documentarians, who with no money or resources, get these issues out to the world.

Topics will include: why take it upon yourselves to tell the world these stories? how do you discover

topics and ideas to investigate and explore? how do you get the resources to do so?

do you get an emotional attachment to these subjects? what are your ultimate goals?

We are seeking your assistance with these panels. We would like to invite passionate advocates from

within the Vincentian Family who are artists, filmmakers, historians, photographers, writers, or

performers who would be willing to speak on behalf of the Family. Do you know anyone who can

express their vocation in art, who has stories to tell about social and urban affairs? If there are any

members of your Branch of the Vincentian Family who would be interested in participating in a panel

discussion, please let me know (at vfo@famvin.org) by 15 September 2018. For more information,

please see fv400.com.

Thank you for your continued support of this initiative which will assist us in our ministries of service to

people in poverty.

Sincerely yours,

Rev. Joseph V. Agostino, CM

International Coordinator