{"id":390072,"date":"2026-04-21T07:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390072\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:36:20","slug":"vatican-to-host-private-screening-of-scorsese-pope-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390072\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican to Host Private Screening of Scorsese Pope Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMartin Scorsese<\/a>, it\u2019s fair to say, is team Pope.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Vatican on Monday announced it would be hosting a private screening of the Scorsese-produced documentary Aldeas, The Final Dream of Pope Francis<\/a>, in Rome on April 21, to mark the one-year anniversary of Francis\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

\n\tAldeas is the community cinema project run by Pope Francis\u2019 global educational movement Scholas Occurrentes which holds workshops around the world to help local communities create scripted short films celebrating \u201ctheir unique identities, histories, and values.\u201d The documentary follows the cinema initiative across Italy, Indonesia, and The Gambia, and includes a visit by Scorsese to his grandfather\u2019s village in Sicily, where he works with local young people to make a film of their own. It includes Pope Francis\u2019s last in-depth on-camera interview shortly before his death and several behind-the-scenes conversations between the Pope and the Oscar-winning director.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis film is a tribute to the Holy Father,\u201d said Scorsese in a statement. \u201cIt honors his memory by embodying the spirit of his ministry and his dream of creating an ever more human culture. At this moment in history, I believe that is not only a dream, but a necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Vatican will hold a private screening of the film on Tuesday, April 21, a year after Pope Francis\u2019 death, just steps from where he lived and died.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Monday, the Vatican unveiled several first-look images from the film (see below).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new film lands amid a weeks-long dispute between the current pontiff, Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, and U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> over the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. After Leo called Trump\u2019s threat that a \u201cwhole civilization will die\u201d to be \u201ctruly unacceptable,\u201d POTUS lashed out, posting on Truth Social that the first U.S.-born Pope was \u201cWEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.\u201d Trump also posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, which he later removed amid a backlash from American Christians.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the new episode of Last Week Tonight on Sunday, host John Oliver mocked Trump<\/a> for taking on the leader of the Catholic Church, saying the President was \u201con a epic run of picking losing fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, also weighed in, suggesting the Pope should be \u201ccareful when he talks about matters of theology.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the weekend, the Pope, currently on a tour of Africa, said it was \u201cnot in my interest at all\u201d to debate Trump about the Iran war, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.<\/p>\n

\n\tClare Tavernor and Johnny Shipley directed Aldeas, The Final Dream of Pope Francis, which was produced by Aldeas Scholas Films in association with Sikelia Productions and Massive Owl Productions. LBI Entertainment and Double Agent are handling sales of the film, with all proceeds to be reinvested in the Aldeas initiative.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAldeas, The Final Dream of Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAldeas Scholas Films<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAldeas The Final Dream of Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAldeas Scholas Films<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Scorsese, it\u2019s fair to say, is team Pope. The Vatican on Monday announced it would be hosting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[65,156,1019,2793,409,111,139,69,17037,21810],"class_list":{"0":"post-390072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-international","11":"tag-martin-scorsese","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-pope-francis","17":"tag-pope-leo-xiv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}