Renowned filmmaker to introduce new PBS documentary at Saint John’s

Award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney will introduce her newest film, "Forgiveness: A Time to Love, A Time to Hate," at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in AV-1 of the Alcuin Library at Saint John's University. The lecture is sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and is free and open to the public.

"Forgiveness" is a three-hour documentary that will debut on PBS this coming April. The program at Saint John's will feature an advance screening of several episodes and a discussion led by Whitney of issues raised in them. 

"This stunning documentary covers a wide range of stories from personal betrayals to national crimes, from individual atonement to the work of reconciliation between nations," said John Merkle, director of the Jay Phillips Center.

"It compels its viewers to confront what forgiveness means, when it is and is not appropriate to forgive, why atonement is necessary and how to achieve reconciliation."

Whitney has written, produced and directed numerous films that explore the spiritual breadth and depth of human experience. A number of them, such as "The Monastery" (1981), "John Paul II: The Millennial Pope" (1998), "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero" (2002), and "The Mormons" (2007), deal explicitly with both intimate and public religious issues. 

Featured on ABC's Closeup and PBS's Frontline and American Masters, Whitney's films have received many honors, including an Emmy Award, the Humanitas Award and a Peabody Award. One of them, "First Edition" (1977), was nominated for an Academy Award for best short documentary.