Trailer: “The Church on Dauphine Street”

Posted on June 9, 2012 at 8:00 am

A church, a priest, two kindred spirits, and the kindness of strangers. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when nearly all hope was drowned in the flood, one church in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans did not give up. This is a story about Father Joseph Benson, a Northern Irishman, and Arthine Vicks, an ex-Marine fluent in American Sign Language: two unlikely allies working to reunite one of New Orleans’ most unusual, most independent congregations. It is a powerful story of inspiration, hope, and home. You can view the entire movie on Hulu.

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Documentary Spiritual films

Today on TCM: Strange Cargo

Posted on May 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm

“Strange Cargo,” starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, is on the surface the story of prisoners escaping from a Devil’s Island penal colony. But it is also a powerful and moving spiritual allegory with a Jesus-like character played by Ian Hunter and a devil-like character played by Albert Dekker who compete for the soul of the prisoner played by Gable. It is well worth a watch so set your DVRs for midnight (Eastern time) tonight.

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Neglected gem Spiritual films

Blue Like Jazz

Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:05 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexuality, drug and alcohol content, and some language
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	References to tragic world situations, family stress
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	April 20, 2012
Date Released to DVD:	August 6, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	0785263705

Donald Miller’s best-selling collection of essays, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality has become a crowd-financed and lightly fictionalized film about a Texas teenager from a sheltered Baptist community who goes to the famously free-thinking Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Marshall Allman of “True Blood” plays Miller, whose Alice in Wonderland-style immersion in a world where everything is questioned and debated is disturbing the way jazz music is disturbing — it never resolves. In Texas, the answers were always laid out in nice straight lines. Everything resolves. Miller’s estranged father, an intellectual who listens to jazz and lives in a trailer, tells him it is time to improvise, to challenge his ideas. His father has arranged for him to be admitted to Reed. When Miller begins to suspect for the first time that not everyone practices what they preach, even at church, he decides to give it a try.

“Forget everything you think you know,” he is told when he arrives. “Sexual identity is social construct,” explains a girl who is using the urinal next to him in the men’s room. One student is handing out free bottles of water and another is handing out literature explaining why bottled water is a scourge and a fraud. Students get credit for civil disobedience. Even his most mundane beliefs are challenged: no one in Oregon carries an umbrella when it rains. Why separate yourself from the elements?

The script by Miller, director Steve Taylor, and co-producer Ben Pearson, smooths out the story (the real Miller did not arrive at Reed until he was 30 and he audited some classes but did not enroll). They wisely avoid the easy and obvious “fish out of water” confrontations. Refreshingly, Miller and his classmate heretics are from the beginning almost always very tolerant of each other’s ways of approaching the world. Indeed, while Miller is warned that the other students may not accept his faith, the most intolerant behavior comes from Miller when he feels betrayed in a very personal way by his church (the film’s only disappointing departure from the real story for the sake of narrative tidiness).

This is a very strong movie in its own terms, a thoughtful, smart, sensitive coming-of-age story. Reedies will enjoy familiar sights from Powell’s bookstore (the site of a debate about the existence of God) to the scroungers’ table in the cafeteria. Most important is that just as Miller’s book explores an expansive, golden-rule-based version of Christianity, the film itself takes sincere, faith-based story-telling out of the narrow confines of what is currently classified as “Christian entertainment.” The real divide is not between believers and non-believers but between those who believe that questioning and tolerance bring them closer to God and those who prefer constant reinforcement of what they think they already know. The vocabulary of faith should not be the exclusive property of one small subset of believers, and it is heartening to watch a movie that makes that point with such grace.

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Interview: Brian Presley of “Touchback”

Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:00 am

Brian Presley starred in the soap opera “Port Charles” and “General Hospital” and now makes faith-based films with his production company, Freedom Films. He graciously made time to talk with me about his new film, “Touchback,” where he plays a man who gets a second chance 15 years after an injury in a high school football game ended his hopes for a professional career. We spoke about his goals for Freedom Films, his own comeback, and the Bible verse he carries with him.

You were a producer as well as star of this film, is that right?

Yes, my company is called Freedom Films and we produced the film, helped raise all the financing and organized this craziness around a pretty awesome story.

Tell me how the story first came to you and why you picked it.

Well, when the story came to me, I was at a pretty rock-bottom place in my life. I had been working as an actor since I was 19. I started making films back about eight or nine years ago, and had a vision to do movies that were family friendly; movies to bridge a secular audience together with a faith audience around a message with uplifting stories.

As we set out, I kind of lost sight of those principles and began to focus on movies filled with violence and stuff that didn’t necessarily reflect that message. I also started living a more self-centered life-style. Anyway, to make a long story short, they had a movie that came out and then the unthinkable happened—I was Washington, DC with lawsuits, I wrestled with addiction that brought me to my knees—and through my faith in God I’ve been able to rebound back and have a second opportunity to be here, to really rebound and revamp Freedom Films.

“Touchback” came to me during that time period. Here was a story about a guy with different circumstances but a very similar situation to the one I was in, as far as what he was going through, and so I could relate to this character. I just knew immediately that this was a gift I just knew that I had to make this movie. We were able to get it organized and it gave me hope again; the movie’s about second chances and it’s ironic that it happens to open the weekend after Easter, given the meaning of Easter.

There’s something very tantalizing and compelling about the idea of second chances, because it makes us think more hopefully about the choices that we make.

You know, to me it’s easy to look back at life and go, “Wow, maybe I wouldn’t be in this predicament hadn’t I made that choice,” and I think sometimes those choices—whether they be bad or good—some of those low points in life are some of the greatest teaching points. There are the storms of life or the places where we get to a fork in the road and we can go this direction or this direction—I just believe that whatever path we choose, God knows the path we’re going to take. There are always going to be storms and trials in life.

One of my favorite lines is the movie is “Life gets a heck of a lot harder than football.” And you know, that’s so true. I played high school football and was quarterback, and we went to the state championship. When you’re in those moments and you’re a kid, you tend to see them as the only things that are important. Life stands still. But it’s just equipping you for what’s to come. Life is challenging, life throws us curveballs and unexpected challenges, and circumstances might leave us going, ‘Why?”

For me, I’ve been dealt those circumstances and wrestled with my demons and my addictions. You really learn from those time periods and try to change to be a better person. I have a wife and two kids, and I strive. No one likes to be in those dark valleys. But my faith in God has helped me overcome and I feel like I have a second chance with “Touchback” and some of the other projects we’ve been able to get going.

You have a number of my favorite actors in this film: Melanie Lynsky, Christine Lahti, Kurt Russell, Marc Blucas. So tell me a little bit about how you went about casting, what you were looking for.

In a way, it’s why I think this movie was a gift, to have it come together with Christine Lahti and Kurt Russell and Melanie and the rest of the cast, and to have everybody fit. It’s like when you try on something and it fits—this one just had that kind of chemistry. Everyone came and got involved in it because of the message behind the movie; they loved the story. Whether living in a small town called Coldwater, Ohio or in Hollywood, California, people gravitate towards the same things: family, community. You want to find your place. The message in the movie is: no matter how small, when our eyes are diverted outward versus inward, God starts to do amazing things.

Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

I do. Philippians 4:13. When I was in High School I would wear that on my wrist band. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and that’s why I think it’s kind of interesting that the movie happens to open up on 4:13—that wasn’t planned. That’s been the verse that I’ve kept in my back pocket as I travel through life.

That’s what the movie does; we tried to layer God throughout the movie without being heavy-handed.

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Actors Spiritual films

List: Movies for Passover

Posted on April 5, 2012 at 9:37 am

Hag Sameach! Passover is not just about remembering the story of the Exodus from Egypt. It is about telling the story.

Thousands of years before people talked about “learning styles,” the Seder included many different ways of telling the story, so that everyone would be included, and everyone would feel the power of the journey toward freedom. The Haggadah makes the story come alive through taste, smell, and touch as well as sight and hearing, and through the example of the four sons it presents the story to the wise, the simple, the skeptic, and most especially to the young — one of the highlights of each Seder is when the youngest person present asks the traditional four questions, beginning with “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

If they had known about movies back in the time of Moses, they would have included that form of story-telling, too. For younger children, The Prince of Egypt and Joseph – King of Dreams are a very good introduction to the story of how the Jews came to live in Egypt and how Moses led them out of slavery. Shalom Sesame: It’s Passover, Grover! is a great introduction to the holiday for preschoolers. Children may also enjoy Chanuka & Passover at Bubbe’s, Out of Egypt – The Passover Story and The Passover, which explains all of the elements of the seder.

Older children and adults will appreciate Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments and the more recent versions of the story, starring Burt Lancaster, and Ben Kingsley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKEp7WYrMmY