13th Day screening benefits Hapag-Asa

MANILA, Philippines - In today’s very corporeal world dominated with technology-laden visuals comes The 13th Day, a film by Ian and Dominic Higgins based on the memoirs of Lucia Santos, one of the three children in Portugal chosen by the Blessed Mary to offer a message of hope to the world.

The 13th Day dramatizes the true story of three young shepherds, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco who experienced six interactive apparitions with a “Lady from Heaven” between May and October 1917, which culminated into the final prophesized miracle. The stylistically beautiful and technically innovative re-creation of the scenes in the movie are further enhanced with today’s digital screens that capture the stunning images of the visions and the final miracle that have never before been fully realized on screen.

In commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s birthday and to continuously propagate the Marian message, the Assisi Development Foundation brings The 13th Day in cinemas on Sept. 8. Bringing forth a message of hope, the movie’s release in theaters is undertaken together with the Marian Solidarity for Pope Benedict XVI for the benefit of Hapag-Asa, a feeding program of Pondo ng Pinoy Community Foundation co-managed by Assisi Foundation in partnership with dioceses, parishes and local organizations. Hapag-Asa was conceived as a church and sector response to the country’s high-prevalence of malnutrition among children who belong to the poorest of the poor.

Anchoring on a clear and reality-based rationale that malnutrition affects about eight million Filipino children, Pondo ng Pinoy’s Hapag-Asa Feeding Program has overridden the challenges against common perception that feedings are short-term solutions. Hapag-Asa’s program has already fed more than 500,000 poor and hungry children in the last five years. The program aims to alleviate the incidence of hunger considered by Pope Benedict the XVI to be “the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty.”

In keeping with its altruistic mission to feed at least 120,000 malnourished children each year, Hapag-Asa invites moviegoers to watch The 13th Day for it only takes P10 a day or P1,200 for six months to feed a hungry child and help him improve his future.

Channeling entertainment to sustain Pondo ng Pinoy and Assisi Foundation’s mission, proceeds of the movie will go to Hapag-Asa. Reaching out to broader audiences’ participation in Hapag-Asa’s mission to feed the (hungry and malnourished) Filipino children, The 13th Day ticket prices in Ayala cinemas are pegged at P75 for block screenings and at P100 for walk-in patrons.

For advanced on-line ticket purchase, check out Ayala’s www.sureseats.com. Interests for group and block screenings may call 632-1003 or e-mail at [email protected].

The 13th Day will be screened at Greenbelt 3, Glorietta 4, TriNoma, Market!Market!, Alabang Town Center and (consecutively) in Ayala Center Cebu and in Marqueemall at Angeles, Pampanga.