With summer in full swing , perhaps like me you’d like to watch a few good movies with your kids. But with all the hair-raising stuff appearing onscreen, parents can use some good advance reporting on movie content.
Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite voices on all things movie, Sister Rose Pacatte, F.S. P., director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, California. With a masters in media studies from the University of London, Pacatte does media literacy education for parents and teachers. We interviewed her a few years back at U.S. Catholic magazine, and her down-to-earth wisdom about movies and TV and kids was refreshing.
Pacatte’s website contains not only current reviews of some movies in theaters and recently on DVD, but also a list of movies chosen for her “Meeting Jesus at the Movies Program for Kids 2010.” She also lists movies that embody the sacraments as well as “Movie Bible Nights: The Ten Commandments for 2010” (many movies in these last two categories are for adults).
Pacatte is a wise, down to earth guide to Hollywood’s offerings.
Other movie resources: screenit.com, which offers exhaustive content analysis for movies (language, nudity, violence, drugs, even “jump scenes”). Free access to info about most movies; you can pay to subscribe to see reviews of new movies as soon as they come out.
The Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also reviews movies in theaters and coming to DVD (you can find the list of the Vatican’s top 45 films at this site, too). And Nell Minow’s Movie Mom blog also reviews movies with a reliable parent’s eye.
Filed under: Family and Media | Tagged: Movie Mom, Nell Minow, Pauline Center for Media Studies, Screenit.com, Sister Rose Pacatte | 2 Comments »