CHICAGO, May 9, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The director of a new short pro-life film says he hopes that most people won’t want to watch it.
Rob Kaczmark, the production manager at Spirit Juice Studios, says that the new short film ‘To Be Born’ – a brutal depiction of the visceral experience of abortion – is supposed to reflect his own feelings upon witnessing the video-recorded dismembering of a real unborn child.
View “To Be Born” here.
“It was hands down the darkest thing I have ever seen. To actually see legs and arms being pulled out of women was too upsetting for words,” Kaczmark told LifeSiteNews.com.
“So upon viewing that, I felt compelled to show the darkness and craziness of actual abortion in my own artistic interpretation. … I hope people think this film is disturbing. Abortion is disturbing.”
In “To Be Born,” cutting-edge production technique harnesses the power of visual storytelling to bring the viewer into the mind of a tiny child experiencing an abortion. The premise – an unborn child describing her feelings as she is put to death – is based upon a short piece entitled “A Letter from an Unborn Child” by Chicago priest Rev. Stephen Lesniewski. Lesniewski, a sidewalk counselor, claims to have saved over 500 children with the “letter.”
Kaczmark said the film began pre-production two years ago. Spirit Juice footed much of the cost “to get it to the level of production it deserved.” Despite operating at a significant loss, he said, taking on the project “was kind of a no-brainer.” “We are all very pro-life at Spirit Juice Studios, and it seemed like a great opportunity to help create a powerful pro-life film,” he said.
The journey proved difficult, with multiple technical errors and other minor catastrophes frustrating the group’s progress: actors quitting hours before filming, computers constantly crashing, and “really everything under the sun.”
“Making any film can be a very difficult process with so many elements of production to coordinate,” he said. “If you throw in the fact that it is a Catholic/Christian-based film then you are facing spiritual warfare on top of that.”
The end result, now available online in English, Spanish, and Polish, may be too gruesome for the tastes of many even in the pro-life crowd – a fact Kaczmark acknowledges, but says he does not regret.
“We knew that we were not creating a film that everyone would like. When it comes to abortion, most people don’t even like to talk about it, let alone see it.” The goal was not to reach either pro-life or pro-choice audiences, he said, but “the people in the middle who may not know exactly where they stand, and may not know what exactly happens during an abortion.”
Kaczmark said the group was available to travel for public screenings. The DVD of To Be Born is available for purchase via the To Be Born website.
“Our main goal is just to get the word out there about what abortion really does – it takes an innocent human life,” he said.