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A friend just sent me the link to Ben Stein: Expelled, a forthcoming documentary that deals with intelligent design and chronicles Ben Stein's "confrontation with the widespread suppression and entrenched discrimination that is spreading in our institutions, laboratories and most importantly, in our classrooms, and that is doing irreparable harm to some of the world’s top scientists, educators, and thinkers" (source).
The Expelled Blog has been around since August (read Stein's introductory post), so this may have been discussed ad nauseam in the blog world. But if there are others who, like me, have taken a joyful and extended holiday from the blogs, I thought it would be worth linking again here.
Stein approaches the issue based on the fact that a free and progressive society should have the freedom to discuss intelligent design without fear of discrimination and persecution.
The Expelled site has several videos, including a lengthy 'super trailer' (pictured above). Check them out here, or view the teaser trailer @ youtube embedded below.
RELATED
Ben Stein's homepage
Stein on Bill O'Reilly (youtube video)
Stein @ technorati
As personal note, this documentary is especially interesting to me given that the Fellowship Associates residents just finished reading and discussing Nancy Pearcey's, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Study Guide Edition).
Technorati Tags: BenStein, intelligentdesign
With Black Friday upon us...
If you're not already familiar with What Would Jesus Buy?, the new film by Morgan Spurlock (writer and director of Super Size Me), you might want to check out the film's official website.
What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! (source)
The film is a comedic-guerrilla-satire-umentary (I'm pretty sure I just made that up). Though a bit gimmicky and sure to be dismissed by many evangelicals for being sacrilegious, the film should spark humorous and healthy conversations about consumerism, credit, and the widespread superficiality of the retail Christmas. Perhaps worth considering before you brave the crowds on Friday, or purchase those new rims in the spirit of Christmas (watch the trailer and you'll get that joke)
Check out the trailer here
Additionally, I would commend several recent reviews:
-Brett McCracken, Christianity Today
-Darrel Manson, Hollywood Jesus
-Laura Kern, New York Times
-Walter Brueggemann, Sojourners
RELATED LINKS
-Media Omnibus
-Rev Billy @ YouTube
-Rev Billy dot com
Technorati Tags: consumerism
Brian Godawa's new documentary Wall of Separation is set to air on PBS during the month of June. Click here to read the PBS press release and check local listings. Here is a description from Godawa's website:
The “wall of separation” is a metaphor deeply embedded in the American consciousness, and an idea that continues to cause deep controversy within the country. In this historical documentary, Godawa takes a look at what the Founding Fathers intended when they framed the Constitution and wrote the First Amendment religion clauses. Were they trying to create a Christian nation, a secular paradise, or something in between?
An examination of the humble origins of the “wall of separation” in Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists reveals a meaning quite different from the modern understanding, yet one that foreshadowed the ongoing debate of today.
The documentary takes a look at how our understanding of church and state relations has changed through history by means of Supreme Court decisions and cultural pressures. From Everson vs. Board of Education to the most recent decisions over Ten Commandments displays, such interpretations are explored in comparison with the Founder’s original intent. This raises questions: Should "original intent" guide modern interpretation? Should government be secular, or should religion have influence on the State? There are no easy answers to this ongoing debate that polarizes the nation. (see also PBS pressroom).
Click to watch a five minute segment of the film from Godawa's website
RELATED
Godawa at IMDB
Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films With Wisdom & Discernment
(HT: JT)
Technorati Tags: documentary, Godawa, PBS, Church+State, America+Religion
-Hollywood Jesus
-Al Mohler
-Mark Goodacre (NT Gateway)
-Pop Matters
-Mark Moring (Christianity Today)
-Challies
-Interview with Screenwriter Mike Rich
-Crosswalk
-Bible Films Blog
-Peter Chattaway (Christianity Today)
RELATED
-Official Home Page
-Apple Trailer
-Pope not interested in attending The Nativity premiere
-Trouble with New Line, the Nativity, & The Chicago Christmas Film Fest...
-The Nativity @ Rotten Tomatoes
Technorati Tags: Christianity, evangelicalism+film, Film, Jesus+Film, Christmas, The_Nativity
Looking For Something: CT Explores the Life of Kieslowski
Krzyzstof Kieslowski, one of Poland's great directors, was reticent to talk about his beliefs.
"Faith is a possibility," said Kieslowski, who died an untimely death at age 54. "In Poland, it is an obligation." In fact, he once told an interviewer that he thought the church in his country actually hindered contact with God.
He told another interviewer, "I am not a non-believer," and yet another, "I think that if someone like a God above exists, someone who made everything around us, and made us too, then we very much slip out of his grasp."
Yet Kieslowski clearly had an interest in the spiritual, religious and metaphysical aspects of his characters, not only in his subject matter, but also in his transcendental style.
Influenced by Bergman, Bresson and Tarkovsky, Kieslowski's filmmaking is characterized by ambiguity, irony, philosophical discussions, long takes, and close-ups of objects, hands and faces. Yet unlike most European directors, his films are enormously engaging; Kieslowski captivates the attention with suspense, humor and ruthlessly efficient editing.
In his films, though, he was open to questions of faith, while he left room for the "searchers," as he termed himself. "All my films," he said, "are about individuals who can't quite find their bearings, who don't quite know how to live, who don't really know what's right or wrong and are desperately looking."
After a distinguished career in documentary filmmaking as part of the "Cinema of Moral Anxiety" (which also produced directors like Agnieszka Holland and Krzyzstof Zanussi), Kieslowski abandoned the form because he felt afraid of filming "real tears" and felt he could more accurately portray the world and human emotion through actors. (read more)
I watched The Decalogue again last summer and two of the Three Colors Trilogy (Blue / White / Red). Kieslowski made some of the most beautiful and powerful films I've ever seen.
RELATED
Kieslowski IMDB Page
Kieslowski Home Page
Kieslowski @ Wikipedia
Brett McCracken Reviews Jesus Camp
If Jesus Camp could be characterized as a genre film, I’d sooner label it horror than documentary. From the very outset and throughout its 80-some minutes, the mood is foreboding, with dirge-like music and stormy skies mixed with images of seven-year-olds speaking in tongues. The film is about a Midwestern summer camp for cute, little Christian preteens, and yet it comes across like Children of the Corn meets The Blair Witch Project.
Or so the filmmakers hope. (read the review)
RELATED
My Previous Jesus Camp Posts
Jesus Camp @ Rotten Tomatoes
Technorati Tags: christian+culture, church, Jesus+Film, JesusCamp
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