(B&W in Italian with subtitles)

Director Pier Paolo Passolini, a gay Marxist atheist, produced The Gospel According to St. Matthew after his arrest on charges of blasphemy for his heretical portrayal of Jesus in his short satirical film, “La Ricotta.”Â? Four decades later, Gospel is now admired by many as a moving and powerful depiction of the life of Jesus Christ. The release of the film in the US was accompanied by a controversial change in the glowing dedication of the work to Pope John XXIII and in the removal of the scene portraying the investiture of Peter (now restored in this screening). The film won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival and earned three Oscar nominations. It is widely praised for applying documentary methods to a narrative story with stark and beautiful results.

Accompanying Passolini’s masterpiece is The Miracle, a 2003 film by Italian director Edoardo Winspeare about a boy who awakens from a coma and discovers that he may have the power to heal the sick.