"Nicaea" Film Launches Charity Funding Initiative by Former Wall Street Investor and Christian
Former Wall Street investor Charles Parlato is excited about a new charity funding initiative he's started and is using and new film "Nicaea"—which combats Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code"—to showcase the funding's inauguration. The question put before the Council of Nicaea, explains Parlato, centered on the divinity of Jesus—"Who do you say that I am?" Rome's Cinecitta Studios, one of the leading film studios of Europe and the location where "Ben Hur" and "The Passion of the Christ" were shot, will be the studio home for the movie "Nicaea." Most of the professionals from "The Passion of The Christ" have been retained for the production of "Nicaea" as well.
(Tallahassee, FL)—A former Wall Street investor has launched a new crowd-funding platform. Charles Parlato, founder of C&C Shorelands, Inc. and former hedge fund manager has launched Investors 4 Charity (I4C). (Photo via ANS)
Parlato has been involved in the capital markets for approximately thirty years, first as an analyst and then as manager of a private hedge fund.
"I don't think there has ever been something like this," Parlato said. "There have been donation platforms, but in those situations the beneficiaries are the developers. Usually profits go into the pockets of the producers or other equity investors."
Nicaea the Movie is the inaugural fundraising project for I4C. Parlato says that Nicaea seeks to tell the story of Constantine The Great, the first emperor to embrace Christianity, and Athanasius of Alexandria and how their actions at Council of Nicaea in 325AD established the theological and political underpinnings of the ancient Christian Church in Europe.
"With the rise of crowd-funding as an alternative to traditional institutional funding, I thought that perhaps a variation on the present crowd-funding model might present a different path forward for the production of this movie," Parlato said.
Under the I4C platform, donors can designate a charity (or charities) within a group of charities selected by the project's developers. The charities designated by each donor will receive all proceeds and profits due equity investors from the project. Thus, donors select the media project they wish to support, designate the charities that are to profit from the successful development of the named project and receive a tax deduction in the amount of their donation.
"People who want to support a particular media project are able to make a tax deductible donation to I4C," Parlato said. "The donors in turn become equity investors where the benefits of the investment will flow to the charities that have been selected on the website."
Through I4C the benefits, profits and proceeds from a particular project support non-profit organizations.
The Council of Nicaea was the first general council of the ancient church. It affirmed the basic apostolic tenets of the faith, which had been under attack by the Arian heresy. This heresy contended that while Jesus was the first among mankind, he was not part of the Godhead. Indeed, Jesus prefigures the council and the eternal question of his very nature by the question he put to his disciples in Matt 16:15, "But who do you say that I am?"
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code contends that Constantine and a few powerful clerics made Jesus divine at the council. Parlato contends that Brown's view is categorically fallacious and that the council strongly endorsed the view of the Apostles that Jesus of Nazareth was and is divine and that he forms a portion of the Godhead. Contrary to The Da Vinci Code, both the votes and arguments were powerfully in favor of the apostolic view of Jesus.
"Who do you say that I am? This was the question put before the Council in the form of the Arian heresy, which questioned the divinity of Jesus," explains Parlato.
Rome's Cinecitta Studios, one of the leading film studios of Europe and the location where Ben Hur, The Passion of the Christ and The Rome TV series were shot, will be the studio home for Nicaea. The studio executives are excited to have this story of Rome told in Rome and at their studio. Most of the professionals from The Passion of The Christ have been retained for the production of Nicaea.
To learn more about the fundraising platform go to www.Investors4Charity.org.
