StoryTel Documentary Televised on EWTN for the 14th time in 4 years

Our newly restored documentary about a dying parish miraculously restored to life is now available on DVD and will be broadcast to 230 million homes worldwide on September 25th. 

Watch our new trailer below to get a good feel for this newly restored and digitally remastered, time-tested documentary "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred".

"Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred" on EWTN Wednesday, September 25 at 5:30pm CT; Also available to watch online and on DVD at storytel.org/cantius

Standing the Test of Time

In the years following this program's premiere on EWTN in May of 2009, the fame of Saint John Cantius Church has grown and people everywhere have connected with our presentation of this amazing true story of how an all-but-abandoned huge, old church, destined for the wrecking ball, became a thriving religious and cultural treasure again.

People are inspired by this production because it's well done and it's true; true to what actually happened and true to the spirit of those who worked with God to make it happen.

It's a great story that we have structured a bit like an opera using the music from the choirs of Saint John Cantius to set and change the mood and to help drive the story forward. The story builds almost by itself as the production elevates liturgical beauty, appreciates Sacred music, and demonstrates how little things like making confession available during Sunday mass can have a profound impact on parishioner participation in the sacrament.

Father Scott Haynes, SJC of Saint John Cantius has described this production as, "A powerful tool for our parish's revitalization and for the work of our religious community!" Father Haynes also called it, "A decisive tool for attracting vocations, a video that clearly proclaims who we are and what we do."

Restoring the Documentary

During a review of this program, a few months ago, we began discussing how incredibly much video and audio technology has developed in the years since we originally shot this documentary, way back in the days of Betacam-SP video tape; and we decided it was high time we took advantage of our current technology to re-create this production in widescreen and bring all image and sound quality up a few notches.

So we set to work restoring and remastering. We re-edited the picture into 4x3 widescreen; enhanced and re-mixed the soundtrack; re-created the titles and sharpened the still images; close captioned the whole production for the hearing impaired; dubbed it into Spanish to reach untapped markets; and basically enhanced all the visuals and audio wherever possible throughout the entire program, without altering any content along the way.

It Takes Eight Satellites to Reach the World

After 14 broadcasts dates on EWTN's seven English-language satellites spanning Africa and India; Canada; the United States; Europe; the Pacific Rim; UK and Ireland; totaling 75 individual English broadcasts, viewers are still calling EWTN to praise "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred" -- proof that Catholics around the world are entertained by this production and inspired to see the Sacred elements of our faith restored.

In 2012, StoryTel released the Spanish-dubbed version of the Cantius story, "San Juan Cancio, La Restauracion de lo Sagrado", and since the Spanish program's premiere, "San Juan Cancio" has been televised on four separate dates to EWTN's worldwide Spanish-language channel.

The Spanish and English "Saint John Cantius" productions together are currently reaching over 230 million homes throughout the world with 94 individual broadcasts from eight different EWTN satellites. Both versions are now contained on one DVD in the newly restored and remastered; widescreen; closed captioned; English or Spanish language; and enhanced audio -- "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred".

September 25th on EWTN

If you haven't seen it, the story will delight you -- and if you have seen it before, you know you'll enjoy the experience of revisiting this timeless StoryTel story in the newly restored widescreen edition.

So be sure to tune in to EWTN on Wednesday, September 25 at 5:30PM central, for their 14th televised broadcast of "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred". (EWTN Channel Finder)

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Calls for Encore Heard at EWTN!

Thanks to your tremendously positive feedback, EWTN will encore "Where Heaven Meets Earth" on Wednesday, July 31 at 3am & 6:30pm Eastern / 2am & 5:30pm Central.

“Where Heaven Meets Earth” has earned an abundance of praise and many noteworthy accolades from the general public, priests, sisters, other religious and of course wonderful people like yourself.

EWTN viewers have been emailing and calling-in to compliment our documentary and ask when it will air again. Normally, EWTN waits a year before re-broadcasting a production, but by popular demand, they've decided to encore “Where Heaven Meets Earth” only three months after its premiere!(check EWTN's channel finder for the station in your area)

DVDs, trailers, and millions of viewers!

StoryTel and Saint Peter Church have been receiving hundreds of DVD requests for this production from all over the US, Canada, Australia, and even from the United Kingdom; over 20 thousand unique visitors have seen the "Where Heaven Meets Earth" trailer online, and -- of course -- millions of people watched the EWTN premiere on April 30, 2013. 

We've always encouraged On Assignment viewers to request DVDs from the organization highlighted in the film after the credits roll because we believe these organizations deserve support from viewers. Now, EWTN also wants to offer "Where Heaven Meets Earth" on DVD in the EWTN Religious Catalogue because the program received so much praise, and so many requests for DVDs after airing the program for only one day.

Building Anticipation

Requests for DVDs and anticipation for the program began to build in the days leading up the EWTN broadcast largely due to the success of our first-ever marketing initiative for an On Assignment film.

We made tremendous efforts to foster healthy relationships with the Catholic (and non-Catholic) press, bloggers and other influentials to spread the word about this film, which proved to be a fantastic success as we've received great coverage from many sources in the Catholic media world. Notably, Dan Burke the Executive Director of National Catholic Register, remarked over Register Radio airwaves that "Where Heaven Meets Earth" is,

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EWTN Premiere Tonight of "Where Heaven Meets Earth, Restoring the Sacred at Saint Peter Church"

Reminder to watch EWTN tonight at 6:30ET, 5:30CT for the world-wide television premiere of "Where Heaven Meets Earth, Restoring the Sacred at St. Peter Church"

EWTN Channel Finder

We've had considerable traffic to the WHME microsite recently. In fact in two short weeks, we received over 2.6K Facebook Likes for our trailer and thousands more people watching it across the globe. So, thank you to those who have so graciously shared the story of St. Peter Church in Omaha and helped to promote "Where Heaven Meets Earth" to Catholics all over the world!

If you know someone who hasn't seen the trailer or heard of the documentary yet, consider sharing this uplifting story by sending them to www.heavenmeetsearth.tv or sharing a copy of "Where Heaven Meets Earth" on DVD.

You can order the full 30-minunte documentary on DVD by:

1. Visiting storytel.org/order where we give away DVDs for a free-will, tax-deductible donation.
2. Click the PayPal donate button and fill out your payment information.
3. On the second page of the payment process, type "Where Heaven Meets Earth DVD" and the quantity you'd like into the "Special Instructions to the Seller" section.

StoryTel and St. Peter's have been blessed to receive widespread press coverage and promotion for "Where Heaven Meets Earth" the highlights are below:

• Featured 4 times by National Catholic Register: www.ncregister.com, Dan Burke's blog post, Daily Register, and Register Radio
• Featured 2 times on EWTN: EWTN News Article, EWTN Facebook & Twitter promo
• Catholic News Agency: Carl Bunderson's article, seen on CNA, EWTN News, and NC Register
• New Advent: Omar Gutierrez' blog advert
• WDTPRS: Fr. Z's glowing review
• Omaha World Herald: Mike O'Connor's in-depth article
• Omaha's Catholic Voice: Lisa Maxson's article
• Radio Interviews: Relevant Radio, KVSS Spirit Catholic Radio, Register Radio

Standing Room Only at BIG SCREEN Showing!

They laughed, we cried. It was so wonderful to see our hard work connecting with the audience. Very excited for the World-wide Television Premiere on EWTN, Tuesday April 30th at 3am & 6:30pm Eastern.

Visit our Facebook Page to see more pictures of the BIG SCREEN showing at St. Peters Gymnasium on April 14, 2013.

Not Boring at the NC Register & Don on Register Radio

Dan Burke, Executive Director of the National Catholic Register, reached out to StoryTel and wrote a great piece on Restoring the Sacred and "Where Heaven Meets Earth." Thanks Dan!

"Something that our listeners don't want to miss. It is one of the more inspiring documentaries I've ever watched." -Dan Burke

"Where Heaven Meets Earth" Producer, Don Carney, was on Register Radio for a 12 minute interview about the work StoryTel has been doing to inspire people to restore the sacred. Have a listen...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: StoryTel Productions to Reach New Audience of Millions

EWTN to Air Saint John Cantius Documentary in Spanish, October 2012

OMAHA, NE — July 26, 2012 — The investigative documentary, ON ASSIGNMENT: St. John Cantius Restoring the Sacred, by StoryTel Productions, has been adapted for Spanish audiences, renamed San Juan Cancio, La Restauración de lo Sagrado, and will soon premier to millions of Spanish speaking viewers in EWTN’s global television network during the month of October, 2012, a new audience for StoryTel productions.

ON ASSIGNMENT: San Juan Cancio, La Restauración de lo SagradoSpanish-speaking viewers across the United States and throughout the Latin American world will soon be able to see the inspiring and hopeful, true-life story of the spiritual revival of St. John Cantius church in Chicago. This timeless ON ASSIGNMENT classic has been expertly dubbed into Español for StoryTel’s new international viewing audience.

“What’s so exciting about this documentary,” says Don Carney, the film’s producer and director, “is that viewers are transformed and inspired by watching the stunning changes that took place, the way people came out of nowhere to participate, overcoming setbacks along the way, and all because one person said ‘yes’ to God.”

This inspiring parish revival story of St. John Cantius church in Chicago, was captured by StoryTel Productions’ ON ASSIGNMENT, an investigative made-for-television documentary series uncovering dramatic, transformative and true stories of the Divine at work in the world.

ON ASSIGNMENT: St. John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred, has continued to air internationally on EWTN in English, since its premier in 2009. “The program has been well received,” says Rebecca Amos, of EWTN Programming, “particularly by those Catholics who wish to preserve our historic churches.”

StoryTel’s audio engineer, Tom Krol of Level 10 Sound, spent many hours meticulously translating and dubbing the voices to create an authentic experience for the audience. Krol created an extremely accurate Spanish translation for the film, even accounting for language nuance and assigning a different voiceover artist for each person in the story.

The Spanish program, appropriately renamed ON ASSIGNMENT: San Juan Cancio, La Restauración de lo Sagrado, will premier in the month of October, 2012 as part of EWTN’s International Fall Line-up.

EWTN will promote the StoryTel production, during the month of October, in their programming guides targeting the Spanish market. The documentary will air throughout North and South America as well as Spain.

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