Diary of a City Priest

The journals of Father John McNamee, a spiritual guide, poet, and seer of many worlds past and present, reveal his story.

Film Signature Image
Premiere Date
April 1, 2001
Length
60 minutes
Producer

Eugene Martin

Philadelphia native Eugene Martin is an award-winning writer/director whose work has been screened internationally. His feature film, Edge City (1998) won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Hamptons International Film Festival. The film had its American premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival and has screened at more than 15 Show more international film festivals and at the Directors Guild of America in New York. Martin’s shorts and documentary works have been screened at the American Film Institute, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and broadcast on PBS and the Sundance Film Channel. Martin graduated with an M.F.A. in film production from Temple University in 1990. Among his short films are Invisible Cities (1991), Open Distance (1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award, and Cynthia’s Window (1988). Martin’s first dramatic feature film, Two Plus One, premiered at the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema in 1994, and screened at the first Slamdance Film Festival in January 1995. Two Plus One was acquired for distribution by Phaedra Cinema, and screened theatrically around the country. Martin lives in Philadelphia with his wife and three children, and produces work out of his production company, City Story Pictures. Show less

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The Film

David Morse (The Green Mile) stars in this dramatization of the journals of Father John McNamee, a real-life maverick priest running an inner city Catholic parish in Philadelphia. Whether helping a heroin addict illegally purchase methadone so he can go on his honeymoon or rushing to an emergency court session in the middle of the night to bail out a young parishioner, Father McNamee’s daily moral quandaries reveal how one activist priest can rescue lost souls.

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