Celluloid Spirituality

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 1, 2001 | by Larry Witham

The nation's film festivals showcasing independent films are mostly small, regional or specialized -- including several focusing on Christian themes.

A new brand of American film festival is looking for God in celluloid and encouraging young filmmakers to feature spirit on the silver screen. Their goal is to promote movies that attract a general-interest audience, yet bring a moral and spiritual depth to the silver screen.

Now in its first year, the Damah Film Festival in Seattle has attracted 230 short entries that try to capture "spiritual experience" on film (damah is Hebrew for "a metaphor that transforms"). Festival judges include Hollywood filmmakers and entertainment critics. The awards will be announced during two days of screenings and workshops in the Emerald City beginning Oct. 10.

Two weeks later in Los Angeles, the eighth annual City of the Angels Film Festival will sponsor "four days of faith and films" at the Directors Guild of America. "We have the leading venue for this kind of critical reflection on film," says Robert K. Johnston, a professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., a main organizer of the event scheduled for Oct. 25-26.

This year's theme is "Touches of Evil." "We'll ask whether this genre has anything to contribute to spiritual discussions in the church and society," says Johnston. The festival will show the best of new and old horror flicks, sponsor a session with macabre moviemaker Wes Craven and offer workshops with theologians and Hollywood screenwriters who are Christians.

"When City of the Angels began, we were encouraged not to `out' the Christian artists," says Johnston. Now, filmmakers with religious drives or imaginations can pretty much do what they want, if they've got talent. "Our concern is not to clean up Hollywood, but to bring a spiritual presence to bear."

In Seattle, the Damah festival will unfold in some of the most artsy scenes in town: the Seattle Art Museum, the Performing Arts Center and new Experience Music Project building. The jury, which will will hand out $15,000 in awards, includes filmmakers Howard Kazanjian (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost and Deep Impact) and Ralph Winter (Planet of the Apes), as well as film critic Michael Medved, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Levine, and actor Mako, who appeared in the movie Pearl Harbor.

The call for entries, sent to all the nation's film schools and to several abroad, was for "short films that capture raw, truthful moments of spiritual redemption, struggle, inspiration, surprise, etc." Categories range from 60 seconds to 30 minutes. Longer films will be included as the festival's reputation grows, but "we wanted to be `doable' the first year."

"I think people in film are looking for the opportunity to tell deep, powerful stories," says Stewart Burke, an Internet entrepreneur on the festival board. "We are judging the best in the show by a powerful story, not by the technical effects."

Festival organizers note that they are not proselytizing. "We have different themes, but we're not trying to promote an agenda," says Johnston. But some say there is nothing wrong with propagating the faith while cultivating new filmmakers. When the Rev. Billy Graham founded World Wide Pictures, the rationale was "spreading the Gospel." Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright spent $6 million in 1979 for a Warner Bros. production of the Gospel of Luke, now known as "the Jesus film," for the same evangelistic reasons. More recent box-office efforts to convert people include apocalyptic movies such as The Omega Code and Left Behind, underwritten by multimillion-dollar ministries.

Such efforts are encouraged by the Miami-based Christian Filmmaker Film Festival, now in its third year. The festival defines its kind of movie as one "where the main story line or ending deals with (or is based on) biblical Christian principles, morals or beliefs."

But Cornerstone, a ministry and Christian community in Chicago, took a more artsy approach during its summer Flickerings Film Festival, which screened 23 works by new filmmakers and featured a forum on "What is a Christian film?"

This year in New York City, the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Office on Films also opened its first festival, which showcases classics with spiritual themes. "We want to show how film can better our faith," explains Anne Nevarro, chief movie reviewer for the film-information service.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles festival hopes to stimulate what Johnston calls a decade-long changeover in Hollywood that has made it more open to religious-minded artists and film themes. The City of the Angels festival was conceived after the 1992 riots in south-central Los Angeles. The festival opened in 1994 with a theme on how Los Angeles is portrayed on film. The following year's theme was "The Quest for Reconciliation in Cinema." Both the Catholic archdiocese and Fuller Seminary have been prime movers behind the event, and Fuller added a "Reel Spirituality" forum, which draws hundreds of clergy, Hollywood professionals and filmmaking novices.