Catholic Films and Music

Why did we make a documentary on Saint Swithun Wells, using costumed portrayals, historical imagery and an especially composed score?  He is perhaps one of the least known of the Martyrs of England but when we read his biography we were hooked on him as his witness and bravery shouldn’t be forgotten.  We wanted to bring him to life and make him real so that people can see him as a flesh and blood Englishman rather than a name lost in the dust of history and so we filmed portrayals for St. Swithun Wells in June and July of 2010 alongside our productions of St. Edmund Gennings and St. Polydore Plasden, whose own Martyrdom’s and biographies are intricately woven into that of St. Swithun Wells’.  The biography is told from St. Swithun’s own perspective and he takes you through his life, capturing the climate of the Elizabethan Era, historical details and facts.  But the production also gets into his head and heart and is a spiritual encounter with this Elizabethan man who had contact with Shakespeare and was caught up in the Babbington plot.  We filmed externals for St. Swithun’s large country house on location at Parham House in West Sussex.  The final film runs for half an hour and is very atmospheric, and produced in an original style that is absorbing and interesting.  Our own love of scenery, nature, medieval music and historical truths shine boldly throughout the documentary.  St. Swithun Wells is our least popular film as no one is interested in him and most people have never heard of him which is a shame as he is amazing.  We have probably sold 5 copies in total to date.  We do make these films as cheap as possible as our sole intention is to promote the lives of the English Martyrs but we have to cover our costs for time, props, scenery, location payments, costumes and DVD production/duplications else we would eagerly offer them for free.  DVD sales go right back into producing more documentaries on these English Martyrs and Catholic Saints.  It’s our obsession and the evangelisation and apostolate works on many levels.  Once you really encounter the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales you realise why they were not canonised until 1970 as they are extremely relevant to today.  Not only was St. Swithun Wells a sportsman and a protestant in his early years, but he travelled to Italy, spoke Italian and upon his dangerous conversion to Catholicism he went on secret missions abroad and then set up an outlawed secret room in his home so that the illegal Catholic Mass could be celebrated by the Missionary Priests.  His life was then dramatic and tense and unfolded in a drama in his home that saw him arrested, tortured, tried and hanged outside his own house in Gray’s Inn Lane in London after 24 year old fellow Martyr St. Edmund Gennings was hanged, drawn and quartered before him.  We cleverly filmed three complimentary documentaries to give different insights into each man’s story so all three go hand in hand – we call them our trilogy.  With virtually nothing else available telling the story of St. Swithun Wells this is a very good resource at least, but more than that as we only make our productions worthwhile to challenge and make the viewer think.  Our DVD is available on Amazon UK and Amazon COM and also our own website.  Even though St. Swithun Wells lived over 400 years ago it is quite shocking how relevant his life was and especially his death for the Catholic Faith in England.