wfn.org | PBS program offers images of Jesus in art

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

April 2, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service

Images of Jesus from the early third century to the present are displayed in
"The Face: Jesus in Art," which will air during Easter Week on public
television stations.

United Methodist Communications is among the organizations that provided
funding for the two-hour program. Producers are Thirteen/WNET New York and
Voyager Productions Ltd. A 90-minute version also will have a limited
theatrical release.

The program uses wide-screen 35-millimeter film, the latest digital
technology and motion control photography to reconstruct art works in their
original locations. A team of more than a dozen art historians helped select
the images of Jesus and illuminate the stories behind them.

For example, viewers are taken up close to Michelangelo's Pieta, walked
through the treasures of the Chartres Cathedral, swept across the Sinai
desert to see the Byzantine icons of St. Catherine's monastery and plunged
into the catacombs beneath Rome to see the earliest images of Jesus.

Viewers should check local listings for air times. Besides United Methodist
Communications, other supporters include the Catholic Communication
Campaign, the Dolan Family Foundations, Family Theater Productions, Our
Sunday Visitor and the Aztec Foundation.

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United Methodist News Service
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