A Great Many Thanks

For the past twenty years I've always fancied myself a writer before most any other creative endeavor.

Just over five years ago I realized that my commitment to writing had waned and my output had slowed to a trickle... I was losing my edge. So, I decided to open up my creative faucet by starting this blog with a promise to write an entry everyday for a year. And I did.

And that's how this all started... as a way to get my artistic booty into gear.

Now, five years later, it's coming to an end. So many things have changed over that time.

My marriage moved from 12.5 to 17.5 years. I could not be more happy with my relationship with my wife. We are truly blessed.

My children moved from childhood into young adulthood. My daughter was 11 when we started and my son eight. They have grown into such fine, young, driven, faithful people. I am amazed by them, inspired by them and can't believe I have the honor of being their father.

My understanding of my Catholic faith has grown exponentially over the past five years. What was a small spark has grown to consume me more and more, enough that I put my faith and my passions together into one vocational endeavor called Sonlight Pictures.

Within the past five years I lost my father. His passing, though sad, was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life and which I chronicled on this website. I will never fear death again.

Over the past five years I shot a couple of award-winning projects. The micro-budget digital feature The Box, the first Sonlight Pictures project Club God and the web series Nikki & Babs (formerly Purgatory, USA).

I've watched my beautiful wife become involved with our Lifteen Mass band called Messenger. Her visible display of faith during Mass has inspired many... I know, I've heard it over and over again. They've released a CD and now I get to hear her sing whenever I want.

I've been blessed with good health and consistent employment during this last half-decade. Two things of which I NEVER take for granted.

I've coached my son's baseball teams saw a group of young, talented boys turn into young, talented men. I've seen my gifted son be a better person than a baseball player. He is known by coaches, players and umpires alike for both his competitiveness and his compassion on and off the field.

I've helped my daughter with her acting homework and saw her touch the lives of her friends by her faith and her example. I've grown to love many of her friends as if they were my own children and am awed at their passion for Jesus Christ.

I have been very, very blessed.

On this, the last entry of this five year blog experiment, I'd like to say a few thanks. Granted, over the 1800 or so days of its existence we've had many of visitors. However, there have been a few very consistent followers of this humble acre in cyberspace and I'd like to thank them for their kindness and support.

My Mother - My mom has been the most consistent visitor of this site and, by far, the greatest contributor to our comments section. So, thank you, Ma, for your wonderful love and support these past five years. Her weekly Carolina Chronicles that she sends out via email for the past decade has inspired us all.

Paul - having moved away from the family to Texas and taking our mother's lead, took the Bauer family's first foray into the blogosphere with his now defunct blog called the Houston Chronicles. He's also been a great supporter and consistent visitor to the site and a selfless enabler of my creative endeavors.

KT and Rett - Both my niece Katie and my sister Loretta are about tied with their visits to the website and their comments. They always filled their input with humor and heart-felt support.

Steve, Chuckles, Laura and the rest - For the other family members who made this place a part of their lives, I want to thank you as well! Your witty, wise and timely comments comforted me when I feared this blog was merely an unintentionally selfish exercise by which I would only hear my own voice.

THANK YOU... ALL OF YOU!

Over the past five years, I've shared an awful lot about myself here. Funny stuff, family challenges, growing pains and faith struggles. I've tried to be honest and humorous and I even attempted being insightful at times. Don't know how successful I've been, but I will say that it has been a pleasure to be part of your lives these past five years.

I hope the grace of the Almighty will inspire you, guide you and protect you, not only in 2010 or the next five years, but for the rest of your days.

God bless you all!

Slow Updates Apology

Sorry for the snail's pace of updates here on the blog. Life has been very busy.

Recently our air-conditioner needed complete replacing. As mentioned earlier, our bathroom needed complete replacing. Dea then hurt her back (she's better now). Gabe has started travel ball again (that's 5 nights a week). DC has started college (loves it) and Gabe has started 7th grade home school (likes it).

I have been blogging a bit, over at the Sonlight Pictures Blog, where we've shared our first podcast of Basking in the Son as well as entries about faith struggles, script writing and capturing moments of inspiration.

We're finally near the very end of the negotiating process for distribution of Purgatory, USA. We hope to have the paperwork finalized in the next week or so.

This weekend some of us will be traveling down to Cocoa Beach for a baseball tournament. Being so busy has left little time for screenwriting, which is frustrating, but I hope to get back into the swing of things as soon as I hand off all of the deliverables to the distribution company.

So, I apologize for the slow blog entries.

And, finally, please pray for us for a special intention. There are some really strong, difficult moral challenges occurring in my extended family and it is taking its toll. Any divine assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Listen to My Interview!

I've known Jon Ashby online for 10 years. He ran a website a long time ago called REwind Video. It was THE hub for the microcinema revolution in the late 90's. Over the years Jon has continued his altruistic support approach to the low budget filmmaker and now runs a website called CommonFilm.org.

He was kind enough to interview me about our recent Club God award, Sonlight Pictures and our future project Forgiven. So, check it out at the links below...

Main Page - http://www.commonfilm.org

Direct link to Interview - http://www.commonfilm.org/media/podcasts/CFInterview-PeteBauer.mp3

Funny thing... having known Jon online for 10 years, this was the first time we actually spoke to each other. Amazing how technology has changed relationships and communication.

In any event, it was very kind of Jon to take the time to allow me to talk up Sonlight Pictures. Please check it out.

The Da Vinci Hoax (2004)

When Michael Moore's documentary came out a few years ago criticizing the American health care system while extolling the virtues of the Cuban socialist health system, I got into an interesting discussion about the topic with a co-worker. At the end of the debate about the validity of Moore's work I asked my co-worker a simple question...

"Which is easier, making a film that shows American health system as vastly better than Cuba's or the other way around?"

My co-worker responded "That's easy, America's."

"Then you have to wonder the true intent of someone who does the opposite," I replied.

The same basic scrutiny can be used when looking at Dan Brown's work in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons with his attack on Christianity as a whole and the Catholic Church specifically.

My mother was scanning books at a bookstore up in Georgia and spied one of which she thought would have an interest to me. She was right.

The book is called The Da Vinci Hoax. It's a wonderful book that expertly dissects the massive misinformation abounding in the pages of Brown's work and, more importantly, discusses the drivers behind the author's attempts to undermine the world's greatest religion.

How much garbage is in Brown's book? Well, it takes almost 300 pages in Hoax to cover all of the areas of misinformation. That means there sure is a lot of garbage to clean up!

Brown states that his material is thoroughly researched and historically accurate. He also states that history is written by winners and can't be trusted. So... what, Dan? Are you saying I shouldn't trust your version of history either????

That's just one of the basic red lights that flash about his work.

While raising my children I have tried to instill in them the idea that they should take all of their family responsibility seriously, even the small tasks. I would say to them, "if I can't trust you to take out the garbage when you're supposed to, how can I trust you with something more important?"

The same holds true for researchers claiming to uncovered some hidden truth. Case and point... Brown repeatedly states that "the Vatican" was doing this and that in various parts of history. Unfortunately, many of these events occured prior to "the Vatican" even existing. He should have said "the Church" or "the Catholic Church." But he didn't. Not a big deal, perhaps, but I go back to the phrase, "if you can't get the simple things right, why should I trust you on the big things?" How hard is it to understand that the Church is an entity and the Vatican is a place?

Look Dan, I already understand it after writing one sentence. How did it slip through that enlightened mind of your's? Probably because you were uncovering the whole conspiracy behind the Church/Vatican trying to weed Mary Magdelene out of Church history by refusing to ackowlege her as the "true" Holy Grail.

There's a lot of simple problems with that theory, Dan. If the Church/Vatican wanted to eliminate MM from Church history they simple DON'T HAVE TO MENTION HER IN THEIR STORIES/GOSPELS! I don't believe MM was mentioned by non-Gospel writers, so if the apostles were so intimidated by her place in Church history, all they had to do was simply NOT TALK ABOUT HER.

Second point, Danny boy... you say MM and JC were married and had kids and that JC survived the crucifixion and the apostles covered it up, blah, blah, blah, I have to ask you another simple question... WHY?

Why would the apostles sacrifice their life so JC and MM could have children? What did they possibly have to gain? The Church was not a powerful empire, it was a group of a couple of hundred people who were at odds with the Romans, the Jews and the Gentiles. So, why would they do that? Please, inspire me with a simple, logical answer, Mr. Brown. Well, while you're mulling that over, I have a few more questions...

You really think JC survived the crucifixion? Did you not do ANY research on Roman crucifixions? Or Roman law? Or health care back then?

Lastly, Brown goes on and on about how Da Vinci's painting shows the true meaning of the "Holy Grail" claiming that John sitting next to Jesus in the Last Supper painting was actually MM. And that Peter's depiction of a knife near John's/MM's throat shows that the church wanted to "decpitate" MM's power.


Ugh... Dan, Dan, Dan. I go back to my America/Cuba example. Every credible art and church historian explains the imagery... John, the youngest, would not have a beard. Peter's knife is a visual precursor to his use of the sword in the Garden later in the evening. And the picture itself is supposed to be the moment after Jesus told them there was a betrayer in their midst.

But what about this missing "Grail" Dan would ask? Well, Dan, if you were to simply LOOK at the painting you would see that EVERYONE has a cup in front of them. There is no need for a Grail to be passed around. The Grail isn't missing. It isn't necessary!

That's just some of the "Hello, Danny B., time to get your head out of your anti-Christian buttocks!" you'll find in the many detailed pages of The Da Vinci Hoax.

So why would DB take material from sketchy sources to compile a "historically accurate" alternative view of Christianity?

Because it appears that Dan Brown is all about the Sacred Feminine. And that the masculine Church has apparently been suppressing it all of these centuries. It's all very new-ageish and uses extreme feminist wishlists and imaginary tales to convey the glory that is the Sacred Feminine.

So that's his intent. He tells us to ignore history while presenting his own version of it. He ignores long-standing credible research and embraces Gnostic and feminists views of deity and muddles it all together into a mishmash of elaborate poppycock called The Da Vinci Code. Ignore it at all costs.

I do, however, strongly suggest everyone read The Da Vinci Hoax. There is so much more information on the misinformation Brown spins about the Templars, the Priory of Sion, Constantine, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, Da Vinci's volume of work, his relationship with the Church, etc., etc.

The short of it is this... Brown is a very bad historian with an anti-Christian axe to grind, period. He should be mocked or ignored, but never taken seriously.

Club God Wins Bronze Lighthouse Award at the Faith Film Festival

We're very excited to announce that our short film Club God won the Bronze Lighthouse Award at the Faith Film Festival!

It is such a wonderful blessing to have our first project garner such an acknowledgment from the Christian film community. We could not have done it without the support of many, including the prayers from our Sonlight Pictures Angels community!

God is good!

Vote for Club God Today!

You can now vote for Club God at the Faith Film Festival website.

Thank you for your support!

Club God Online at the Faith Film Festival!

You can check out Club God at the Faith Film Festival website.

When they make voting available, please make sure and give us a vote for us.

PUSA - Quick Take 3: Idol Dreams

Here's the last of the Quick Takes for PUSA...

PUSA - Quick Take 2: Vanity

Here’s the second of three PUSA Quick Take vids.

This one is titled Vanity…

PUSA - Quick Take 1: Reunion

For people who haven't seen the series, we've created some Quick Takes so they can understand the humor, style and production value.

The first one is called Reunion.

New PUSA Trailer

I've posted this on Facebook, the Sonlight Pictures website and on the SLP blog... but not here. So, here it is :)



We'll be posting more marketing and behind-the-scenes vids soon.

Anti-Catholicism in Hollywood

Angels & Demons is coming out soon. Of course, its full of misrepresentations of Catholicism (big surprise there). Where Hollywood goes out of its way to equalize Muslim characters (one bad is countered with one good), no such courtesy is given to the big bad Catholic Church.

There's a great article about this at Christianity Today located here:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/news/2009/ishollywoodanticatholic.html?start=1

One of my favorite quotes from the article is as follows:

Rome's foes today "aren't debating transubstantiation, they're debating transgender," said Catholic film critic David DiCerto. "They aren't debating the real presence [of Christ] in the Eucharist, they're debating the real presence of humanity in the womb. It's much more the hot-button moral issues than the hot-button theological issues."

That's why we created Sonlight Pictures, to help bring a positive face to Catholics through positive portrayals of Catholic characters.

Club God - Screening at the Faith Film Festival

We’re very happy to announce that Club God will be airing in New York and online as part of the Faith Film Festival, sponsored by the NET television station in Brooklyn.

Club God will air June 11th at 8:30 PM. The judged will pick the top 10 films and the fans will pick the top film of the festival.

You’ll be able to get more information on the Faith Film Festival website (which is currently under construction) at the following location: http://netny.net/faithfilmfestival

Keep checking back at our Sonlight Pictures Blog for updates.

Club God Gets Festive

We’re happy to announce that Club God has been accepted into the Faith Film Festival in New York. The films will be aired on cable television in the New York area and showcased on the festival’s website.

Congrats to the Club God cast and crew for their success.

Praise God!

Five Years Ago... The Box Premieres

Five years ago this week we held the premiere of our DV feature The Box at the Clearwater Cinema Cafe. The place was packed and my nerves were frayed. From shooting to editing and re-editing I had seen the end product over 100 times... but this was the first time so many people, important people in my life, were going to partake of our little cinematic experiment.

I could scarcely watch.

It was a big event for me. I had finally completed a feature film... something I had set as a goal a decade earlier. The film definitely has the scars of being an ultra low-budget flick, but it was competent and entertaining, within its own limitations. It got very positive reviews, festival play and allowed me to feel like I was finally achieving dreams I had imagined as a child.

It took a lot of people to make The Box a reality. First, I was very fortunate to have Kyme help out as Producer and single-handedly will the project to completion. She had more contacts in more places than anyone I've ever known. She was indispensable.

One of the best parts of the experience was getting to work with a the very talented cast. Samantha Grahn (Lou), John Hill (JJ), Mike Rembis (Steve) and Dan Doyle (Dante). Plus, I got to work with Brian Shea and John Snell for the first time, both of whom ended up in Club God.

I also believe it was this film that sparked the acting bug in my daughter, who has since starred in Purgatory, USA and is attending a performing arts high school. She will be far more talented than I could ever conceive being. She is a natural. I am so proud of her work.

The premiere was also the event that started the Tompkin brothers quoting lines from the film back to me every time I see them. Over and over and over again. Even to this day they greet me with the line "every drop." Funny how something conjured up in my head over a year before the premiere would make such an impact and last to this day.

I can hardly believe five years has passed already. Part of me thinks that I should have accomplished more by now and the other part of me is amazed we've been able to create Sonlight Pictures and complete Club God and Purgatory, USA within the first year of existence.

The premiere night of The Box was a special night for so many professional and personal reasons. The best of which is that I got to spend that night with my family... brothers, sisters, wife, children and my parents. There is nothing more important to me than my family.

So many things have changed since then. All for the better.

I can't imagine what the next five years will bring.

SISS Vol 3 Available

For those collectors of all books rare, pick up your limited copy of Surviving in Safety Harbor, Volume 3 which covers from June to December of 2006.

Mom, I'll have your copy when you return on Monday.

PUSA - Ep 4 Online

The last Episode of PUSA is now online and you can watch it here.

Enjoy.

Busy

Not a lot of posts lately. Sorry. Just really busy with DC's school, Gabe's baseball, church and holiday stuff.

DC was in a wonderful one-act at school last Friday. It was very funny and she was exceptionally good. We were so proud of her. Amazing to see my little girl all grown up. :)

Gabe's baseball has been going well. He joined a local travel team where they play on larger fields and all of the baseball rules are in play (leading off, stealing, etc.). It's been a wonderful learning experience for him and he continues to improve.

Dea decorated this past weekend and the house looks great, both inside and out. She's such a workhorse and really attentive to detail. When you walk in the house you can't help but be fully immersed in the Christmas spirit. She's awesome.

Tim and his girls came over to watch the Gators trounce the Tide for a shot at the National Championship. Yes "It's Great... To Be... A Florida Gator!"

Finally, my Mom stayed with us a few days. I just love having her over. We always have so much fun... so many laughs. Her laugh is contagious. Plus, she's my mom! I love just spending time with her. That probably makes me a mama's boy, but I'm okay with that.

Now that I'm finally over two consecutive colds, I'm hoping with some more quality sleep and a little more focus, I can get a lot more accomplished, especially on the Sonlight Pictures front. I'll let you know if we do anything of note.

BTW - Bucs vs. Panthers tonight. Hope its a good game.

Have a great week, everyone.

What I Am Thankful For...

Things will get busy over the next few days, so I thought I'd take a moment now to offer up what I am thankful for this year.

I am thankful for...

• My faith - It has grown and evolved to depths I never knew could exist within me. I still have such a long way to go, but the journey has been wonderful.
• The Sacraments - The more I understand my faith the more I appreciate the divine made available to us via the Sacraments. They are God's never-ending gifts that inspire us to greater lives.
• My family - My wife and children are the center of my earthly universe and they, along with my extended family, show me God's love every single day. What a blessing to have so much love from so many people.
• My mother - She is so strong, so independent, so funny and so spiritual. She is an inspiration to me.
• My faith community - We are so blessed at our church to have close friendships with a very large number of faithful, learning, humble Catholics who do their best to understand and live their faith everyday. We are all on our own faith journeys and together, we give each other strength and guidance during trying times.
• My job - I have always worked hard not to take my employment for granted. Every morning I thank God for allowing me to have an income and health insurance. Even when there were times where it was hard or difficult or unfulfilling... it is and always will be a gift and I do my best to treat it as such.
• Making movies - I am so thankful the Lord has allowed me to use the gifts he has given me to praise his name in such little ways like Club God and Purgatory, USA. I feel like I am finally fulfilling my responsibilities as part of the greater Body of Christ.
  
• My home town - I love living in Safety Harbor. It's like a small town in the middle of a big city. The people are nice, everything is in walking distance and the families we've met through Little League are top notch.
• And most of all... God's mercy - I am such a broken man... I am the definition of imperfection in light of God's true perfection. I have so many flaws, so many repeatable moments of weakness and lack of holiness. I don't nor will I ever deserve God's mercy, yet He continues to provide it. This humbles me to no end.

These are some of the things for which I am most thankful.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe and blessed Thanksgiving weekend.

Birthing a Script

There's a fun article over at the Sonlight Pictures Blog about the process of giving birth to a screenplay.

Check it out, if you'd like.