For immediate Release
       Contact: Dan Juday
 703-519-8200
dan@journeyfilms.com

The ADVENTISTS
Latest documentary from Journey Films
profiles American-born religion
whose members live 8-10 yrs longer

Film for PBS stations during National Public Health Week

 The ADVENTISTS is the new one-hour documentary film on the Seventh-day Adventists that explores the history and contemporary story of the faith-group whose members are some of the healthiest and longest-living people on the planet.  The film will air on public television stations the week of April 5th (suggest broadcast), which is both Easter Week and National Public Health Week.  It will be available on DVD February 2010. Special screenings are being scheduled nationally in February and March.

 Formed on American soil in the mid-19th Century, Seventh-day Adventists are by their own description a conservative religion that holds as a central tenet that Jesus Christ is returning again, soon. At the same time Adventists are pioneers in medical technology and health care exploration. For them, waiting for the Second Coming is not a time for fear, but for preparation and hope.
  
 Filmed on location at hospitals and health care facilities in Florida, Ohio and California, the film also contains a re-enactment of the 1844 event called The Great Disappointment which gave birth to Adventism, and a profile of the charismatic figure, John Harvey Kellogg whose Battle Creek (MI) Sanitarium set the standard for progressive health care in the early 20th century.

 “Adventists are a fascinating mix of conservative religion and state of the art health care and healthy living,” says filmmaker Martin Doblmeier (BONHOEFFER, The POWER of FORGIVENESS). Where so much of our current health care debate is framed around economics, Adventists start from the belief that the body is “the temple of God” and needs to be cared for. For them hospital and health care work is “sacred work” and this can help bring a fresh – even revolutionary – approach to our public health care discussions today.

 The ADVENTISTS is produced in high definition by Journey Films of Alexandria, VA. It is written and directed by Martin Doblmeier, produced by Dan Juday and edited by Gayle Añonuevo. It is a presentation of South Carolina Educational TV and will be distributed nationally to public television by American Public Television.

www.journeyfilms.com