“Spotlight”: the lusodescendente that inspired the film nominated for Oscars – TVI24

Michael Rezendes, journalist lusodescendente co-author of research on sexual abuse in the Catholic church that inspired the film nominated to the Oscars “The Case Spotlight”, told Lusa that “the Church must do much more.”
“The Archdiocese of Boston and the Vatican have taken some steps in the right direction, but most of the victims that I know believes that the Church must do much more,” said the journalist Lusa.

“The Case Spotlight” tells the story of the investigation conducted by the newspaper “The Boston Globe”, awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which revealed a huge scandal of pedophilia within the Catholic Church and decades of cover-up at the highest levels.

Rezendes is one of the journalists portrayed in the film and the only journalist who remains as a researcher in the research unit Spotlight which gives its name to the film.

“I am very pleased with the film and I am especially grateful to be to give the work of the Spotlight team a second life with a much wider audience” said.

After the first article published by the newspaper, which led to the resignation of Boston Cardinal Bernard Shaw, the journalist and his colleagues have signed more than 600 articles and They reported nearly 250 clergy.

In the film, the character Rezendes is played by actor Mark Ruffalo, who is nominated for the Oscar for Best Secondary Actor for this role.

The film, which premiered this week in Portugal, also received five other nominations (best picture, best director, best supporting actress, best editing and best original screenplay).

Rezendes said he hoped “people will see the movie and leave the theater with more respect for investigative journalism and a stronger notion that attention public should remain focused on the issue of sexual abuse by clergy. “

lusodescendente he dedicated the past three decades to investigative journalism, writing about the 11 attacks September suicides in prison, health care and the role of monetary donations in the presidential election.

“I started working as an investigative journalist was still a student at Boston University. I volunteered for a small newspaper activist in a poor area of ​​Boston, which is no more, and that was called East Boston Community News, “he said.

Son of Azorean father, St. Michael, Rezendes grew up eating Portuguese food and listening speak Portuguese, but did not learn the language and only visited the country in 2003 to write an article for your newspaper about the village’s grandfather, retort water.

“I learned a lot Portuguese growing up because my mother was French-Canadian. But the Portuguese side of my family was, and still is, very important to me,” secured Lusa.