Priest focus of filming: Father Young's efforts to be TV special

Bishop Howard Hubbard even got cast -- as himself -- in a Family Theater Productions documentary about Rev. Peter Young and his programs for treating drug and alcohol addiction.

"I admit I was skeptical about Father Young's programs when I heard about them a year ago," said Gerard Thomas Straub, a veteran of the TV industry who is the writer, director and producer for the documentary. "But the more time I spend here, the more I'm becoming a believer. My goal is to tell true stories about transformed lives. I want people to see this movie and believe that change is really possible."

Roll 'em

"I gave the Bishop a little direction, but he didn't need much coaching," said Mr. Straub. "He spoke very movingly about Father Young. They worked together at St. John's in the South End 30 years ago, and the Bishop had some great old stories.

Mr. Straub added with a grin: "You know, I used to do a lot of work in sitcoms. I think Bishop Hubbard might have a future as a sitcom star."

Changed men

"I was amazed that Marvin, who spent 17 of his 38 years in and out of prison, is so friendly with the Bishop and everyone else," Mr. Straub said. "People respect Marvin, and they all have this great rapport with him. These former convicts and recovering addicts have not just been rehabilitated. I saw they're engaged members of society. It's remarkable."

Mr. Straub has seen plenty of remarkable things in a TV and film career that spans 35 years, beginning when he was 16 and handed out free tickets to passersby for "The Ed Sullivan Show." He worked his way up at CBS, becoming an executive, and then found a niche producing soap operas, including "General Hospital" for two years. But the glitz of TV eventually dimmed for him.

"I got really tired of that work and stopped believing in it," Mr. Straub said. He began his own transformation after finding inspiration in the work of the Franciscan Friars Minor who work with the homeless in a ghetto of Philadelphia called Kensington -- where priests, brothers, sisters and volunteers feed 500 poor people daily at the St. Francis Inn.

Documentary

"We were both profoundly moved and got started on a documentary," Mr. Straub said. But they ran out of money before they finished. Enter Family Theater Productions, begun in 1942 in Albany by a charismatic Irishman, Rev. Patrick Peyton, CSC, who became known as "the Rosary priest" for his worldwide crusades to get people to pray the Rosary.

In 1947, Father Peyton began building a legendary production company by soliciting Hollywood celebrities such as Bing Crosby, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Helen Hayes and Grace Kelly to narrate or star in his inspirational radio, film and TV specials.

Based in Hollywood, Family Theater Productions today continues to produce TV and film projects with an inspirational message that supports Father Peyton's simple theme: "The family that prays together, stays together." Family Theater put up the money that allowed Mr. Straub to complete his first documentary, "We Have a Table for Four Ready: The Story of the St. Francis Inn," shown on PBS.

Working together

That program has been shown widely on public TV stations around the country and elicited a large response from viewers. The Father Young project, which Mr. Straub also hopes to air on public TV stations nationally, is titled "Free at Last: Hope for Life after Prison and Addiction."

Mr. Straub's freelance crew includes six experienced videographers, editors and producers with network TV credits like "60 Minutes," "48 Hours" and "Nightline." A few worked on his previous documentaries for Family Theater, including supervising editor John Lafferty and editor Chad O. Mochrie. The project is a labor of love for the crew, who all took substantial pay cuts from their usual rates to work on the Father Young story.

Crew view

Mr. Mochrie took this job in search of a little healing. "I was doing a mini-series with NBC that had a $16 million budget, and I was getting so stressed out, I couldn't sleep at night and I was losing it," he said. "I wanted to do a project that I found meaningful. Hearing the stories of these people in Father Young's programs changes our lives, too."

Sprawling projects

The Peter Young Housing, Industry and Treatment Programs house 1,000 recovering addicts and serve 2,000 more in its treatment programs daily. The $10 million annual budget funds 29 locations stretching from New York City to Albany and Altamont -- and beyond.

Father Young, who is also pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in Bolton Landing, prefers the analogy of a three-legged stool to describe his program's comprehensive approach: treatment, housing and employment, saying: "The stool can't stand without all three legs."

Story is people

Other interview subjects will include Sal-Hedin Sears, senior counselor at Father Young's clinic; Malik Hamil, Schuyler Inn executive; and several more success stories. They will also tell the grim stories, like the client who stole his mother's jewelry to pay for his drug habit.

The crew plans to accompany the man to his mother's house in New York City to apologize and ask forgiveness after many years of estrangement.

Respect for priest

"I never got to know the subjects so deeply in the other projects," he explained. "I've come to respect the people who came through Father Young's program. I never really went to church or was religious at all, but Father Young is a priest I can truly say I revere."

Others on the crew echoed that sentiment. Henry Bautista -- a freelance cameraman who has covered breaking news and wars from Asia, Europe and Africa for 30 years for "60 Minutes" and "Nightline" -- said this story broke through his jaded journalistic skin. "You can't helped but be moved by how these addicts have turned around their lives," he said.

Joe Peterson, a veteran production manager for CBS News, heard so much about Father Young from Mr. Straub that he had to come to Albany to see for himself -- and act as production consultant.

"I found a totally selfless priest and the power of unconditional love in the lives of people who were in a lot of pain," he said.

More to come

Next up for him is completion of his book on St. Francis of Assisi, which he has been researching and writing for the past three years. He also teaches a course on TV writing and directing each fall at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome -- where he squeezes in additional research on St. Francis.

"I'm interested in doing programs about people living their faith," Mr. Straub said. "They're not preachy shows. I'm a storyteller and a filmmaker. The spiritual message in these programs is subtle. These are unique, highly individual films that just don't get made anywhere else."

As for Father Young, he is not going to let the Hollywood treatment go to his head.

"Gerry found me and finally persuaded me to go along with the documentary," the priest said. "It's been an education for me to watch them work. If it helps get the message out about treatment programs, all the better. But other than that, I don't expect it will change much for me.

(Editor's note: Paul Grondahl is senior writer at Creative Communication of America in Menands and author of "Mayor Corning.")

(02-25-99) [[In-content Ad]]