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‘Bella’: Filmmakers produce positive Hollywood film
By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
October 4, 2007
Last year, those at the Toronto Film Festival fell in love with an independent film that all seem to agree had “a lot of heart.”
A film called “Bella,” the first film from the fledgling Metanoia Films production company, took home the coveted People’s Choice Award in 2006. The 2-year-old company is comprised mainly of three Mexican men known to many as “the three amigos.”
Actor and producer Eduardo Verastegui, director Alejandro Monteverde and producer Leo Severino began Metanoia Films to develop a production company that would create films with positive messages.
The Metanoia concept is one that Stephen McEveety — executive producer of “The Passion of the Christ,” “Braveheart” and a slew of other films, including “Bella” — did not buy into initially.
When the men from Metanoia Films asked McEveety to produce their small film, he passed on the offer. However a personal friend, Sean Wolfington, accepted Metanoia’s request and McEveety quickly became a sounding board of advice throughout the production of “Bella.”
By the end of production, when McEveety saw the film after the first cut, Metanoia once again asked him to join “Bella.” This time, impressed with what he calls a special film, McEveety agreed.
“It just has a ton of heart and that’s hard to find in a movie,” McEveety said. “If you can do that with a movie, people love it. They don’t see it anymore.”
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted was drawn into “Bella” by a similar experience of heartfelt filmmaking.
“I enjoyed ‘Bella’ because it is such a compelling story, one that depicts tragedies not uncommon in our world, and responses to these tragedies that are uncommon but possible,” the bishop said. “I would recommend the movie for its high quality as a movie, for the compelling story it tells, and for the values it depicts.”
The film follows a day in the life of Jose and Nina, co-workers in a New York City restaurant. Nina is fired at the outset of the film because she comes to work late after discovering she is pregnant.
This is not welcome news for Nina and she plans to abort the baby. Jose spends the film subtly trying to convince Nina not to abort her unborn child.
The film takes audiences through the life of Jose and the benefits of a deep friendship that develops between the two leading characters. The film is beautifully shot and the moving story is told with careful artistic precision.
“Our hope when we started this production company was to recognize the power of the media and to recognize the power of this little ranch in California known as Hollywood,” said Leo Severino, a “Bella” producer, to a group of Phoenix film screeners in August.
“Our hope was to make films that could touch people’s hearts, that could inspire people, that could uplift human dignity, that could show all kinds of positive values in ways that are relatable,” he said. “‘Bella’ is our first baby.”
Metanoia brought together three people from very different backgrounds.
Severino is a lawyer at 20th Century Fox. Monteverde is a recent graduate of the University of Texas film school, turning down films because of their negative message. Verastegui is a former boy band and soap opera star in Mexico.
Although Verastegui was finding success as a Latin actor in both the United States and Latin America, he said it wasn’t fulfilling.
“I wasn’t really working on the mission that I was created for,” he told the Phoenix group after screening the film.
“As an actor, I realized that you can’t control the message of a film from A to Z because you have to submit yourself to a studio or the script,” he said. “As an actor when you get into a project, it is already finished so you don’t have any control. If you want to have control of the message you have to become a producer.”
And that is precisely what Verastegui did when he enlisted to help Severino and Monteverde.
“When we came together it was really miraculous how this product came out because we didn’t even expect it,” Severino said. “That’s the beauty of it because we know that this film has a mission that is bigger than each and every one of us.”
That mission is one that John Jakubczyk, former president of Arizona Right to Life, hopes will touch audiences.
“The movie captures the essence of what it means to be a friend to someone in need as well as the importance of being open to the workings of the Holy Spirit in one’s life,” he said.
Hailed by many as a film with positive messages about the value of life, “Bella” is a film that “promotes life, defends life and encourages life. Jose’s efforts to address the central struggle in the movie reflect the Catholic approach to moral questions,” Jakubczyk said.
Severino said Metanoia Films strives to produce “something positive in Hollywood.”
“Films that your children can see and films that can hopefully inspire people to be better people and to look at each other not so much as objects,” he said, “but to see humanity for what it is — a beautiful creation.”
Jakubczyk hopes Catholics will go see “Bella” for precisely this reason.
“When people such as the folks at Metanoia Films put out a film that extols the culture of life, we as a community should support it,” Jakubczyk said.
“This way, we tell the powers-that-be in Hollywood and in the entertainment industry that we want good, uplifting films that celebrate the good, the true and the beautiful,” he added.
Following the release of “Bella,” Metanoia plans to continue in its mission to make films with positive, life-affirming messages.
“Films that have the potential to touch hearts and minds. Films that have the potential to elevate the dignity of the human person,” Verastegui said.
“Our hope is that when people leave the theater, they will leave wanting to love more, they will leave wanting to forgive more, they will leave wanting to inspire,” he said, “to use their talents to do something positive for the world.”
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