(ZENIT News / Hollywood, 07.13.2023).- A Catholic faith-and-family-friendly production company in Hollywood, California, Family Theater Productions, has signed a deal with PBS Plus to distribute the company’s half-hour film on a Native American girl who used basketball as a ticket to college and giving back to her people.
Native Ball: Legacy of a Trailblazer is from Emmy®, Gabriel, and Christopher Award-winning Family Theater Productions, who also produced the Emmy®-winning basketball documentary The House That Rob Built and Gabriel-award winning documentary PRAY: THE STORY OF PATRICK PEYTON.
Native Ball will be available to broadcast on PBS affiliates nationwide, starting in November of 2023. It will also available to stream via PBS.org or the PBS app at that time.
“We are so pleased to share Native Ball, an inspiring story of Malia Kipp, a member of the Blackfeet Nation. She exemplifies how playing sports can develop character, unite people, and forge friendships,” said Reverend David L. Guffey, C.S.C., National Director of Family Theater Productions. “The film is sure to open hearts to the ways one person can make a difference in the lives of others.”
Father Guffey continued, “The Holy Father, Pope Francis, like so many other popes of the past, celebrates the value of athletics. He said, ‘Sport fosters contact and relationships with people who come from diverse cultures and walks of life. It accustoms us to live and welcome differences, to turn them into a precious opportunity for mutual enrichment and discovery. Above all, sport is a precious opportunity to recognize one another as brothers and sisters on the journey, to foster the culture of inclusion’.”
Family Theater Productions creates content that touches the hearts of believers and non-believers. Founded by famous, globetrotting Rosary priest Venerable Patrick Peyton in 1947, the company produces feature films such as PRAY and free online series Catholic Central and Spanish-language Lente Católico, which teach the Catholic faith in fun and informative ways. The company also produced The Dating Project, a documentary about the current dating scene in the United States.
The company’s team writes a popular, faith-and-family-friendly entertainment blog, which shares insights on media from a Catholic perspective. Learn more at www.familytheater.org.
