Providence, RI -- Rev. Kenneth Gumbert, O.P., assistant professor of film studies in theatre arts at Providence College, was recently honored with a Gabriel Award by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals for his documentary film Saving Grace.

The Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals has given out Gabriel Awards annually for the past 40 years. The awards are designed to honor works of excellence in broadcasting. While applicants are judged on everything from technical quality to the intellectual and emotional impact of their submission on their intended audience, the most important criterion of a Gabriel-winning program is "its ability to uplift and nourish the human spirit."

Saving Grace focuses on the persecution of religious people of all backgrounds, but especially Catholics, in the former Czechoslovakia [now the Czech Republic and Slovakia] under the communist reign from 1949-1989. In the film, survivors of decades of oppression tell their stories in their own words, including how many of them risked their lives by continuing to practice the Catholic faith behind closed doors.

Originally broadcast on PBS, Saving Grace continues to run on the cable channel in various markets across the country. The film also was shown in 2003 at the Great Lakes International Film Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The Gabriel Award was the second major honor Father Gumbert has received for documentary production. His film Ritual Ways, which examined the practices of a Ute (Native American) medicine man, won a Dore Schary Award for human relations in 1992 and was a runner-up in the regional Student Academy Awards. 

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