I just finished reading an article written by my friends and fellow bloggers Steve and Julie Golding-Page. They are an Anglican priest-couple currently living in Saskatchewan and former Regent College alumni. They are self-professed film fanatics who see movie-viewing as an effective way to engage culture and their Christian faith. I especially enjoyed their discussion of Acts 17, where Paul demonstrates an active and thoughtful engaging with the pagan culture of first-century Athens. It's worth taking a look at this interesting article, which also gives ideas for how to start your own film group:http://www.anglicanplanet.net/canadian-news/2010/11/3/film-faith-meeting-god-at-the-movies.html
When I was at Regent College, professor Loren Wilkinson hosted weekly film and discussion evenings. I loved taking a deeper look into films that I knew some Christians might boycott altogether, and finding my own faith enriched in the process, as well as an increased ability to engage the world around me in a more thoughtful way.
What are your thoughts about faith and film? What movies have challenged or changed you?
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Film is such a powerful language. It engages not only our mind but several of our physical senses -- at least sight and hearing, also (via our imagination) sometimes taste and smell (think of all the great food films) and touch. It has a way of bringing us into a whole other world. It is the lingua franca of our age. It behooves us to learn to speak and understand its language, to be able to "read" a film by recognizing the tools of the trade that convey certain things. Camera angles, panning and zooming, blocking, lighting, costuming, pacing, symbolic elements, etc. Any good book on understanding film will discuss these things. Our task is then to blend that with a thorough understanding of the human condition and see how film directors approach it. Do they create an unrealistic "Hollywood ending" that solves the dilemma too quickly? Do they ask the deeper questions? Do they leave us with despair or a sense of hope?
ReplyDeleteI've had the great joy and privilege to take a few classes on film & theology at Regent, taught by Bruce Marchfelder. I can never view a film the same way after that.
Some of the films that have been most impactful to me are:
Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Babette's Feast
Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
Dead Man Walking
Rivers & Tides
The Arts & Faith Top 100 Films list is an excellent place to start on a lifelong journey of integrating film with deep thought and theological reflection.
You are ever ready with good resources, Rosie, thank you! I'm going to have to bookmark the Top 100 List and then make my requests on Zip!
ReplyDeleteI'm always surprised by the way that movies which I hated at first can turn out to be, not necessarily my favourites, but certainly some of the most thought-provoking and rewarding upon deeper reflection.
Good to hear from you!
Becky :-)
Another good resource for "bookmeal-ish" films is Ron Reed's blog, Soul Food Movies. Ron Reed, you may remember, is the founding Artistic Director of Pacific Theatre in Vancouver. Well, he's also a major film buff and film reviewer on a number of sites including his own blog. He is working on a book called 1000 Soul Food Movies: A Guide To Films With A Spiritual Flavour. If you poke around on his blog, you can see some of his lists of films. Here's one. Here's another. Do a Google search for list site:soulfoodmovies.blogspot.com and you'll find a bunch more. Ron also writes for Filmwell, which is another good resource.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Overstreet is another favorite Christian film reviewer of mine. He writes for Christianity Today. He too writes for Filmwell, and has his own site, Looking Closer, which includes an archive of all his film reviews. He’s also the author of Through a Screen Darkly: Looking Closer at Beauty, Truth, and Evil at the Movies, which I’m reading now, and it’s great. He's a friend of Regent folks like Luci Shaw and others. And he's a friend of mine. :-)
In addition to the Arts & Faith Top 100 Films, there's the whole film forum there, where great people get together to discuss films.