Five Years Later, a Seven-Minute Film Still Shapes How Millions See the Mass
Published 2024
When The Veil Removed debuted in late 2019, it did not arrive with the fanfare of a studio release. There was no premiere, no press circuit, no splashy distributor announcement. Instead, the short film, directed by Branden J. Stanley and produced through Spirit Juice Studios in partnership with a small Iowa apostolate, emerged quietly online and began circulating among parishes and friends.
Five years later, in the midst of the U.S. bishops’ nationwide Eucharistic Revival, the film has become a defining artifact of contemporary Catholic media. Viewed more than 100 million times across platforms and translated into more than a dozen languages, The Veil Removed remains one of the most widely seen Catholic short films ever produced.
Its premise is simple: visualize what happens invisibly at every Mass. Yet its impact, both devotional and cultural, has grown far beyond its origins.
Throughout 2024, dioceses across the country, including West Virginia and Des Moines, have highlighted the film in their revival resources, calling it a “stunning short film” that reveals “the coming together of heaven and earth at Mass.” Parish bulletins describe it as “a stunning visual of what really happens at Mass.” Families share it before First Communion. Catechists screen it during retreats. On social media, its images continue to resurface as shorthand for the mystery of the liturgy.
A Director’s Vision That Shifted a Genre
The film’s longevity owes much to Stanley’s directorial approach - narrative realism interlaced with supernatural vision - an aesthetic increasingly recognized for shaping the look and tone of modern Catholic film work.
Stanley begins in an ordinary parish setting with dim narthexes, restless children, and creaking kneelers. Then, without breaking naturalism, the camera widens and reveals angels, saints, and the sacrifice of Calvary intersecting with the actions at the altar. The transitions feel less like special effects and more like a veil lifting.
Catholic commentator Charles Johnston wrote that every time he attends Mass he still “see[s] images from this film” in his mind. Catechist Tom Perna called it “fantastic,” admitting he watched it three times in two nights and that it “brought me to tears.”
Theologian Scott Hahn shared the film publicly, saying it vividly portrays the heavenly reality described in the preface of the Mass just before the “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
These reactions consistently point to Stanley’s pacing, restraint, and visual clarity. His work communicates mystery without diluting it.
From Devotional Short to Cultural Reference Point
Although created as a catechetical tool, the film quickly moved beyond that niche. It screened at regional festivals, winning Best Short Film at the Southeast Regional Film Festival and earning selections at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival. For a brief liturgical film, such recognition is unusual.
Its influence has reached classrooms, youth groups, and parish missions. Catholic schools use it to prepare students for their first encounter with Eucharistic adoration. Parishes play it before Holy Hours. Online forums reference it as if its imagery has become part of a shared Catholic vocabulary.
A viewer testimony on the film’s website reads, “To truly understand what is happening in the Mass, it changed my life.” Another says, “I now approach every Mass with such wonder and awe.”
Five Years Into a Legacy No One Predicted
By mid 2024, the year of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, the film had become woven into the fabric of the revival itself. For many Catholics, The Veil Removed now functions as a visual catechism, offering a way to imagine the unseen aspects of the liturgy in concrete, cinematic terms.
The film appears in parish newsletters, retreat programs, and diocesan resource pages. Clergy recommend it during homilies on reverence. Families share it with children preparing for the sacraments. Its imagery continues to resonate across age groups and cultures.
The film’s creators never predicted such reach, and Stanley did not expect the project to become synonymous with Eucharistic devotion. Yet five years after its debut, the film is still finding new audiences and influencing how many Catholics visualize what unfolds at the altar.
Its quiet achievement remains the same. It does not merely communicate a theological truth. It gives viewers a way to see it.
Five years in, The Veil Removed continues to be one of the most influential pieces of Catholic visual storytelling of the decade. It has shaped not only viewers’ imaginations but also their lived experience of the Mass itself.