Artist bio

Dan Cortes - Writer/Director Dan Cortes is an award-winning short film director, editor and video cinematographer. He currently serves as the Creative Video Producer and Editor for Franciscan University of Steubenville. He has also worked as a producer, videographer, and editor in Syracuse, NY, and a freelance cinematographer and editor in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Dan Cortes has multiple film projects in development including a Feature-film about Montezuma and the Aztecs with renown 3 time Academy Award winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (REDS, APOCALYPSE NOW, THE LAST EMPEROR). Simon Pio Skube - Actor Simon Pio Skube is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Misty Skube of Front Royal, Virginia and is one of 11 children. He is very active in sports, his favorite being football, and regularly serves as an altar boy at his home parish of St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church. ‘Bird of Prey’ is his first film. Micheal McMullin –Actor Micheal McMullin is a DC, VA, Maryland actor/artist. At the age of 45 he decided to pursue his lifelong dream of acting. He began with 48 Hour film competition and his journey has lead him into over a dozen feature length projects and 60 short film productions, playing a lead or major supporting role in many of them. The roles have varied from villain to hero and from derelict to mastermind. Micheal approaches each role with a fresh interpretation. As an artist, he finds pleasure in creating a character that is unrecognizable from the next one. Currently he is playing the villain Warden in Michael Neal's "Swords of Insurgency". He has just recent picked up small supporting roles in Darkru, and R-Naught- 15, both locally produced and highly anticipated productions. His early works include roles in "City of Lost Souls", "All in the Game", "Arrange to Settle", "Dinner with an Alchemist" and "Grey Angel". Numerous short films such as "Selfless", "Retribution”, “Comeuppance", "My Audience" “The Alaris Project” and "Bird of Prey".

Title

Bird of Prey

Medium/Genre

Drama

Artist Statement

LOG-LINE:
Opposite worlds collide when a young Huron hunter encounters a 'Black Robe' Jesuit priest whom he finds tortured and left for dead.

SYNOPSIS
A harrowing film about compassion and discovery 'Bird of Prey' tells the short story of a young Huron hunter who comes into contact with the most despised and feared enemies among his people: a French Jesuit priest
from New France.

Set in the Huron territory of North America in 1642, the young hunter enters into his dilemma; should he satisfy the black robe "demon's" thirst for water or send him into the afterlife with his own blade?

How it fits into contest

A heart of courage is what it takes to stand against the "flaming arrows" that pursue us and the temptation to conform to the spirit of the age. An impulse or spiritual influence which sets brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. As BIRD OF PREY powerfully illustrates in Ephesians 6:10-20 it is only by standing firm to one's mission to "Fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel" that intolerance is transformed into mercy, fear into trust, and hatred into love. It is a mystery which instead of separating and dividing us 'bridges us' together despite our backgrounds and differences through the power that "Comes from the gospel of peace."

Credits

Written, Directed, and Edited by Dan Cortes

Starring Michael McMullin and Simon Pio Skube

Cinematography by Dan Cortes

Music by Jonathan M. Ochmann

Costumes by Dan Cortes

Transcript / Lyrics

Transcript: Bird of Prey – Flaming Arrows of God by Dan Cortes

DYING JESUT PRIEST
(speaking in Latin
Ave Maria...
(subtitled English)
Hail God-bearer...

INDIAN BOY
(Speaking in Iroquois)
Oki Black Robe?
(subtitled English)
Are you a demon Black Robe?

DYING JESUIT PRIEST
(Speaking in Iroquois)
À:we... À:we!
(subtitled English)
Water... Water!

INDIAN BOY
Will you go to your heaven Black Robe?

DYING JESUIT PRIEST
Not without my people...

INDIAN BOY
Then take me with you.

DYING JESUIT PRIEST
(speaking in Latin)
Ego te baptizo in nomine Patris, et Filii,
et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
(in English)
I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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