Feb 27

November 13, 1984
Lech Walesa addressing the hundreds of thousands that
came to mourn Father Jerzy.  He said, "Father Popieluszko
died so that Solidarity may live."

February 27, 10:00 AM
I am sitting in Paul's office at Digital Video Arts waiting for Caitlyn to pick me up.  Our flight for Dulles Airport in Virginia leaves at 2:48 PM.  At some time tomorrow afternoon we'll be landing in Warsaw, Poland.  Just over a month ago I was fresh out of college and working three jobs to get by.  Tomorrow I'll be in Poland.  My friends say I'm lucky.  I think I'm blessed.
When people ask me what I'm working on I have an internal debate with myself.  Do I tell them the long story or the short story?  I find myself starting with the short story, but I can't help telling the long one.  It begins with, "the Poles have been treated like dirt by Europe for centuries," and it ends with, "and now he's this close to becoming a saint."  I love telling this story.  It's a story that needs to be told because people need to know his name.  He was a hero for human rights, a holy man, a common man, and a martyr.  
Now I get to see where he lived, where he walked, and where he preached.  I'll stand in the square that 35,000 people flocked to 28 years ago to hear him speak.  I'll get to talk with his friends, the ones that miss him the most, and shake their hands.  I'll be able to connect in so many ways to the man I've only known through words and pictures.  As I said before, I feel blessed.  
I'll try to keep this blog up each day on the trip to keep you up to date on where we are and what we've done.  I hope to help connect you to this story and maybe it will touch you the way it  touched me.  We will learn a lot on this trip.  We'll have some setbacks, as with any venture, but we'll have more than our share of success too, and maybe, if we're lucky, a little fun.
Thanks for reading.
-Mike Masson

Poland in the news

Father Jerzy conducting a Mass for the Fatherland.
At its height these masses were attracting more than
35,000 Poles to hear his message of hope and dignity.

The day that Paul Hensler leaves for Poland to kick off our final trip a story appears on the front page of the New York Times.  You can read it here.  The people of Poland are asking for a reckoning for the systematic abuse and oppression that Father Jerzy fought against.  While the courts and the media shed light upon those responsible for the oppression, our documentary will shed light on the man that brought hope to his people.  

Warsaw Pictures

Our producer, Paul Hensler, is heading to Warsaw this Tuesday.  The director, Tony Haines, Caitlyn, and I will be joining him on February 28th.  Here are some pictures of where we are going:

St. Stanislaus Kostka Church

From above:  Father Jerzy's picture that
hangs above the entrance to Kostka Church

Kostka Church interior

Shrine to Father Jerzy 

Father Jerzy's grave

Pope John Paul II visiting the grave in 1987

A statue of Father Jerzy

Sample Reel

This is a sample of what we're working on for the documentary "Jerzy - Father of Freedom". 

A Story About a Man

You have heard this story before.  It is a story about a man.  He is an average man in all the ways to measure except the most important.  He is a man of integrity and purpose.  He is a man of dignity and heart.  He is a man of faith, the universal faith in human equality and freedom.  He is a man of vision, a vision that allows him to speak the truth, to bring others to his cause, and to band people together against cruelty and intolerance.

Heroes are not born in times of peace.  
They are born of struggle, oppression, and violence.  This man was born into such a time.  His country that he loved, the country of his home and birth, was in the hands of men who believed that his ideas were dangerous.  They were men of power and fear. Powerful men are afraid of one thing, losing power, and they only know one way to hold it.  They know the club and the truncheon, the boot and the tank tread, the butt of a rifle and the knife in the dark.  This is how men without faith keep power, and for a long time the only way to wrest control from them was to fight on their terms.  This average, ordinary man knew different.

But he was not alone.  Power never changes quickly, or quietly, or without opposition.  It takes a movement, a seismic shift.  Only when the ground is shaken under their feet by the marching of hundreds of thousands of the faithful will they relent.  This man’s words of truth drew people to him as the sun draws out the flower.  Simple words that planted themselves in their hearts and warmed them, gave them courage.

When you’re hit in the schoolyard you have two choices; hit back or do nothing.  These are our prevailing instincts, but this man saw another option.  He saw a way to fight without hitting back, a way to retaliate against the powers-that-be without violence.  It was simply this.  Stand up.  Be counted.  Use your voice.  Fight their hate with love.  Smack down their oppression with the open hand of forgiveness.  This man, this seemingly inconsequential man, spoke to his people and gave them courage.  It fed through him from his universal faith in them.

They stood up.  They were counted.  They made their voices heard.  And a miracle happened.  It worked.  It wasn’t easy, or quick, or without tragedy, but in the end it worked.  No matter how many guns or tanks or bullets the powers had they could not withstand the wave of truth that swept them away.  And the man?  In the end he got what he wanted, freedom for his people, but it was bittersweet.  He never saw it come to fruition.  He paid the ultimate price for his words of peace and truth. 

You’ve heard this story before, but you haven’t heard this man’s name.  It is not Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  It is not Mohandas K. Gandhi, or Nelson Mandella.  This man, this average man, was a skinny Polish priest.  His name was Jerzy Popieluszko. 

This is his story. 

Father Jerzy Blog Introduction

Jerzy Popieluszko (Yeh’-zhey Pop’-e-woosh-ko) was a Polish Catholic Priest and the chaplain and friend of Solidarity movement members in Communist-controlled Poland when three members of the secret police beat him to death and threw his body into the Wloclawek Reservoir.  He was 37 years old.

Blessed Father Jerzy Popieluszko

Father of Freedom is a documentary about the life and martyrdom of this amazing man.  This blog will follow the final months of production, post-production, and release of the film. We’ll follow the producer, Paul Hensler, and director, Tony Haines, to Warsaw, Poland, Father Jerzy’s home, and on to Rome, Italy, and the seat of the worldwide Catholic faith.

We’ll follow the production through it’s final post-production phases at Digital Video Arts and on to its appearance at film festivals and eventual theatrical distribution, all the while posting artwork, short stories, interviews, and clips from the film.  Join us on our journey that will introduce the world to the next great hero of human rights.