‘In Viaggio’ Is Like a Reality TV Show Inside the Life of Pope Francis — Watch the Trailer

Pope Francis has established himself as one of the most consequential popes in recent memory due to his constant attempts to modernize the Catholic Church. Many have credited his willingness to break from tradition, and the adoption of progressive (by papal standards, at least) positions on homosexuality and women’s issues with making the 2,000-year-old institution seem more approachable to a new generation.

Now, in another unprecedented move, the pope will be the subject of a documentary from Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea” director Gianfranco Rosi. Titled “In Viaggo: The Travels of Pope Francis,” the upcoming film pulls from nine years of archival footage to document the pope’s travels around the world and his encounters with various Catholics. Spanning 53 countries, the film promises to be an intimate portrait of Pope Francis that lifts the veil of Catholic pageantry in favor of focusing on the issues that animate him, namely poverty and environmental causes.

“Travel is where Francis the man becomes visible,” Rosi said in a statement. “Direct engagement with the people is clearly extremely important to him. You could say that his pontificate is a reverse pilgrimage, so rather than followers streaming from remote places to the Vatican, the pope himself travels to the people, meets them where they live and learns firsthand about their lives and woes.”

He continued: “I feel fortunate that I had the chance to accompany the Pope on two trips to Malta and Canada before finishing the film. Traveling with Francis, being there in person, immediately engaged the way I think as a cameraman and a director, and a completely different sense of the trips emerged. It forcefully made me aware that just like the Pope’s journeys, ‘In Viaggio’ is necessarily inconstant evolution, and I tried to embed that concept as we included the material I shot. Any sense of closure would have gone against the evolutionary nature of the film, its orientation towards whatever comes next, the continuation of the process of encountering, learning, understanding. This open-endedness is the very essence of ‘In Viaggio.’”

Magnolia Pictures will release “In Viaggo: The Travels of Pope Francis” in theaters and VOD on March 31, 2023. Watch the trailer below, and read IndieWire’s review of the film out of Venice here.

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