By Gia Myers • Posted September 27, 2024

At the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Regional EMMY Awards on Sept. 21, Philadelphia’s Joyful Films won the category of Historical/Cultural Long Form for the film, “The Total Gift: A Katharine Drexel Story.”

Producer and Joyful Films owner Bill Rose calls the experience “an amazing win as we were up against the very reputable networks of WHYY, NBC10 Philadelphia, and CBS News Philadelphia.”

The film aired on EWTN Nov. 26, 2023, and March 3, 2024 (respectively, the birthday and feast day of Saint Katharine Drexel), and encouraged viewers to visit her shrine in its new location at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the Mother Church of the Archdiocese of  Philadelphia.

The genesis of the film traces back to when Rose was asked to film the transfer of the saint’s sacred remains from the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament Motherhouse in Bensalem to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Aug. 2, 2018.

Some of that footage was used in the 2019 special documentary, “The Holy Heiress,” which aired on the 6ABC program, FYI Philly.

A few years later, in 2022, Joyful Films began production on a new version of this story which was to air on EWTN and focus on the saint’s Eucharistic spirituality.

In telling this version of the story, Rose was joined by his friend Augustus DeSimone, and both served as producers on the film.

The two had met in 2015 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary while attending a Come and See Weekend for discernment.

At the time, Rose was a film and television major at Drexel University, founded by banker Anthony Joseph Drexel, uncle of Saint Katharine.

DeSimone had a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from West Chester University and had been working as a missionary with Generation Life.

After that weekend, their paths took them in different directions but they kept in touch, and eventually they became collaborators at Joyful Films.

In creating “The Total Gift: A Katharine Drexel Story,” Rose wanted to inspire people to seek Saint Katharine’s intercession and have a spiritual relationship with her.

They realized that to meet the goal they had to get to the heart of who she was and what drove her to further so many charitable works largely serving African American and Native American people.

“It’s a really great story,” Rose said, adding the film’s message of racial healing is one that resonates with the world today.

“It’s a good bridge for the secular audience to see the social justice that she was doing, to see the empowerment,” Rose said. “In the film, we get down to the why and what was fueling her.  What was most fueling her was this deep devotion to the Eucharist.”

The film contains many interviews with those who have close connections with the saint.  This includes members of her order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament; former St. Charles Borromeo Seminary faculty member Father John Collins, who is knowledgeable of the historical facts of the saint’s life; and Cordelia Biddle, a grandniece of Saint Katharine and author of a book about the saint’s life.

“We had some awesome people to bring about the content of the film,” said DeSimone.

In addition, footage was shot on the grounds of the seminary’s Overbrook campus with local musician Sarah Carpenter playing the role of a young Saint Katharine Drexel in flashback sequences.

The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament supplied Carpenter with garments, eyeglasses, notebooks, and pens, which belonged to the saint.

“It was really amazing the number of things (the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament) lent to us to use,” said DeSimone. “These were relics, and it was a privilege to use them.”

The architecture of the Overbrook campus buildings provided the backdrop to transport viewers to the late 1800s, giving the scenes an authentic feel.

This is the second Emmy win for Joyful Films, which Rose started in 2015. The first Emmy came in 2020 for “A New Way of Thinking,” about a formerly incarcerated individual who found transformation upon his return to everyday life. Joyful Films also received two Emmy nominations in 2019.

To watch the film “The Total Gift: A Katharine Drexel Story,” visit https://youtu.be/Z2wLpAYf2-0?si=HHvtpETgsM8oQy31