Juan Manuel Fernández’s The Altar Boy, The Priest And The Gardener, is Costa Rica’s International Feature submission, one of 13 documentaries vying for Oscar consideration in both the International and Documentary Feature categories. The film is a potent and significant work that follows the quest for justice by two men (Anthony Venegas Abarca and Josué Alvarado Quirós) who were sexually abused by the same Catholic priest, Mauricio Viquez Lizano, who fled Costa Rica to Mexico.
Shot over a period of six years, the doc delves into both survivor’s stories and, specifically, Anthony’s persistent pursuit of Lizano, and his demand for the Church to admit accountability, standing up to mendacious Church leaders. His journey would lead to a groundbreaking 20-year prison sentence for Lizano and a revision of how Costa Rica deals with statute of limitations regarding child sex abuse cases.
Anthony has devoted a great part of his life to speaking out about Catholic sexual abuse.
The Contending had the pleasure of a VIDEO Zoom chat with Anthony about the film and about his story.
