One way film contributes to an increase of intercultural shalom is through documentation of the “other.”
Grizzly Man is a story about the boundaries between humans and animals – a boundary Timothy Treadwell seems eager to transgress. As a reflexive film, it thrusts us into ethically ambiguous domain, forcing us to recognize that shalom is still on the horizon – we are not yet in the peaceable kingdom.
How can we have civil dialogue about race or religion or any issue for that matter if we cannot graciously find the commonality in a story that is shared? Understanding what it feels like to share film as an insider helps me understand how to watch and create film as an outsider.
Effective cultural mystics are those who can interpret the common human experience in the light of the great mysteries of faith using the symbols present in the natural world to illuminate our spiritual experiences. It is precisely these common everyday symbols that point to, or reveal, deeper realities that can be means of grace.
Sex is the concern of both the public and the private and makes evident the need for an intermediary between the two. By keeping sex out of the MCU, Disney/Marvel is missing an opportunity to bind their Avengers together into an actual community capable of negotiating their responsibility to the greater world.
As storytellers, are we brave enough to let people to see us as the flawed human beings that we are? Or do we want to settle for entertainment that only scratches the surface of what it means to be loved by a God who forgives?
Without a Redeemer the struggle between good and evil within us would destroy us. There would be no reason to resist the darkness that sometimes pervades our human existence. But, because there is a Redeemer who transcends this struggle, who conquers death, sin and evil once for all, we can then have hope.
The ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation have inspired and fascinated Christians for 2000+ years. In this film, we see that both Iron Man and Captain America have a flawed sense of what forgiveness and reconciliation are supposed to be.
People embedded in history must appreciate the full scope. This is why film festivals hold retrospective screenings: to highlight from whence modern cinema emerges.
I left thinking about my father, our relationship, how I am constantly, inexpressively grateful for him and yet always feel a little at odds or separate from him, how I long for greater intimacy with him, direction from him, and understanding between us, and more.
Bible stories can run the risk of becoming cliche when we rely on basic renditions of what the written text is telling us. All too often, we know the story, we like to tell the story, but it’s questionable whether or not we really get the story?
In examining the characters of these dystopian stories we perceive grace at work, perhaps unbeknown to the authors, but present in the anthropological representations. The first grace we see is the grace of creation.The second grace is the very gift of God in the incarnate Son of God.
The pathos of DIFF is an emphasis on its second letter: “I”nternational. And that’s my angle. I don’t want to just go to the films I’ve heard buzz about. I want to see the ones which stretch my vision.
What’s theologically askew with Matt’s system of justice isn’t the suffering and difficulties one endures for others. It’s that he thinks he’s the only one who should suffer.
Stories that remain unresolved force us to anticipate and imagine a satisfying resolution in what happens after the story “ends.” These types of stories may even compel us to take action in hopes that we can be part of working justice in the real world.
Perhaps the question is not whether television is high art or low brow entertainment but rather is it aesthetically pleasing and does it provide insight and deep questioning of the human experience?
These films offer unique insights into the upside-down values of the kingdom of God, a spiritual economy of shalom where “the little ones” of Jesus —children and youth—are elevated and embraced without being abandoned.
A new Terrence Malick film is an event, though one that invited conversation rather than critique.
What really is wrong with Christian film? Nothing.
Artists reach down deep in the human psyche and, with sounds, images, reflections, tastes, and feelings, express the inexpressible in order to give voice to the groaning of humanity. It is often here, in the deep recesses of our beings, where grace is at work.
Considering the particular question of how Christian interaction with film might foster shalom in our communities, the recuperation of comedy seems like an idea whose time has come.