3052 Poland-Japan film project
austraLasia #3052

Art 43: Documentary planned for Japan

KRAKOW/YOKOHAMA -- We talk so much about young people in the 'digital continent' and how certain skills and ways of expressing themselves come naturally to them. An interesting proof of this is the activity which the Salesian theologate in Krakow gave birth to several years back. It goes by the name of ART. 43 (the key article on communications in the SDB Constitutions. Check it out!).  Art 43 has already produced some very good quality documentaries, and has spread well beyond Krakow. They have run workshops in Ghana, have producved any number of radio programmes, work in with Missioni Don Bosco, Turin, and now a special documentary is being planned for Japan, focussing especially on Salesian Polish missionary Fr Michal Moskwa, the 'patriarch' of Yokohama, where he is currently based and still, at 96 years of age, remarkably active and alert!

How ART.43 sees itself (as expressed by Roman himself):

"So then we became aware that one of our greatest duties as Salesians is to use mass-media to evangelise. We certainly consider all mass-media, not just press, also cinema, radio, television, and today, especially, in a privileged way, Internet. It would seem that these media are not yet sufficiently valued. However in recent years they have become basic tools for social communication, since they have much greater impact than the “written word”, especially for the young. This should urge us to develop the most modern media, while obviously not forgetting about print.

Armed with this belief, in 2006, at the Theological studentate in Krakow, a group of young confreres founded a movement called : “ART. 43”. This gave rise to the “ART. 43 Salesian Movement”, which aims to popularise awareness amongst Salesians and young people of the challenge of mass-media so it can be employed in the Salesian mission field of evangelisation. So far 4 core groups of ART. 43 have been founded. One is in the studentate in Krakow, another within the Mission Volunteer Movement “Young people for the world”, the third in the studentate in Ląd and the fourth in Piła. This last one was the initiative of young people. In 2010 the first ART. 43 workshop was set up in Ghana.

Our hope is that this movement will grow in the Salesian world in the future, including in poor countries. It promotes: radio, television, Salesian web sites. If someone invents new ways of being present in the mass-media, we Salesians will be the first to use it to proclaim the Word of God. These are the “new areopagi” as termed by John Paul II in his Encyclical Redemptoris Missio. We are all invited to be part of this mission".


The planing for the Japan documentary is still in the making, but likely to take place later in the year. But having seen some of ART 43's work already, I can assure you that it will be a quality production, suitable for TV (their products are already in demand on Polish television).

And while we are at it, it might be worth mentioning that today on SDBwebTV  (http://www.sdb.org/en/SDB_webTV/Provinces) we published a documentary put together by the Slovenian province.  It is worth taking a look at. They have produced it with an English and Italian voice-over as well as Slovenian.

Are you aware of other material of this kind in your province? If so, please send a link along to us.