The Profiles!

The Profiles!

Photo credit: Janet Donovan

“My faith has been a lifeline for me. It says in scripture ‘I’ve set before you blessings and curses, life and death – choose life.’ And that’s when I had to make a decision to do when I was 20,” film-maker Betsy Kennedy Ryzewicz told Hollywood on the Potomac at an evening presentation on the power of film to change culture at The Fund for American Studies DC’s headquarters!  “I didn’t have a conventional home. My father had died when I was young. I was estranged from my mother and really I just had to lean on a savior. So that’s my personal connection to my faith, and I didn’t come from a religious background. My father was Catholic and I grew up going to a Presbyterian church.”

Betsy Kennedy Ryzewicz

Betsy graduated from Stanford University and received her MFA from USC School of Cinema Television in Production. At USC, Kennedy was awarded The Jacob Javitz Scholarship and The Harvey Fellowship. She spent most of her time there working on her thesis film on the band Switchfoot. She began her professional career working for Mel Gibson’s Icon production and then The Robert Simonds Company in feature film development. In 2008, Kennedy also created and produced an original 13-episode extreme sports television series starring Kyle Loza.

Ryzewicz with fellow filmmakers

Ryzewicz was in town promoting a project called The Profiles – a television and documentary project that features the real life faith stories of professional athletes. “The film is going to be about the gospel and is going to be in part told by these athletes. The television series that accompanies this documentary is each episode is going to be the faith story of an athlete, so really it’s a big vision.” Since we were talking about athletes, we wanted to know if she thought  there was any correlation to faith between those that kneel and don’t kneel at games during the National Anthem which has caused a political firestorm.  “I think that a lot of NFL players feel really passionate about their decision on that, and just as with any political issue, when it becomes emotional it’s hard to classify an entire sport based on the political views of one athlete or another – because in the minds and the hearts of each of these athletes they have different experiences and they have different reasons for doing what they do. For some people there’s probably a lot of faith based elements to what their decision is, but I think that it’s definitely different for every individual, for every athlete.”

Jason Jones

Jason Jones is a film producer, author, activist and human rights worker.  He is President and Founder of Movie to Movement, a non-profit organization that is committed to promoting  the human person through film and was on hand to support Betsey’s films.  “We look to produce films that leave the audience with an elevated vision of the human person. We also look for films to promote and to help through our affinity groups, different affinity groups through our non-profit.  The mission of Movie to Movement is to promote the incomparable dignity and beauty of the human person through the power of film. We serve the mission by producing & promoting films that contribute to cultivating a culture of life, love & beauty.”

Ryzewicz got involved with the project because she is a person of faith with a film and television background. “That’s really what my passion is – exploring and talking about Christian faith through media and popular culture. As for me my personal background is that I had a twin brother and he died when we were 20. Part of his death had to do with a lack of, in my opinion, to do with a lack of desire to live. My viewpoint on his life was that he was utterly brokenhearted because he didn’t have a dad. And I know that if he had heard about the Gospel of Christ at a screening [it would have helped].  We want to have a set of ministry screenings based on The Profiles brand and the gospel. And the screening’s ministry is going to have local athletes and national athletes at the screening of the documentary to share their personal testimony and the gospel.”

Harold Fickett, CEO & Publisher Scenes Media

Betsy has also paired with Scenes Media an online daily devoted to entertainment and culture.  According to their mission statement: “We discover and celebrate works of the imagination that render the human experience in all its comic and dramatic glory; those that remind us of what makes living worthwhile. Whether these products provoke belly laughs or anguish—or both at the same time—they speak to who we are and what we most want. Their beauty reflects the transcendent, even when they explore the darkness of the human heart and the brokenness of our world; or the Keystone-Cops-way that life often comes at us. Similarly, seeking out the underlying truth of the way we live today inspires our offerings about culture.  We are also a creative community, as we learn, in this digital world, of how permeable the boundaries of creators and consumers can be. We want to blow out the parameters of the daily magazine format through featuring original music, films, videos, social media items, games, playlists, etc., while keeping our pledge to publish only the good stuff.

Kirby Kristen and Rob Moran

Kirby Kristen and Rob Moran also showed up to support the event.  Kirsten is the current host and writer of Wonderwall.com’s, Fashion Offenders and Replay entertainment segments as well as the website’s red carpet correspondent. She has also appeared as a guest co-host on the Vegas Morning Blend and worked as a field producer for “Entertainment Tonight” where she had the opportunity to interview a long list of stars including Johnny Depp, Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore and the cast of Modern Family.

Moran, who once roomed with Woody Harrelson, is an actor and producer known for You’re Next (2011), There’s Something About Mary (1998) and Meet Dave (2008). He is married to Julie Moran an actress known for Independence Day (1996), All Good Things (2010) and Hard Time on Planet Earth (1989). She became a regular on Entertainment Tonight and was the first woman to host ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

Crescendo: A Movie to Movement film – stay with it to the end.

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