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Friday, October 13, 2006 On Christian Film In one of my other endeavors, I'm the Movies Editor for RelevantMagazine.com; following my latest column for the magazine, I did an interview with Brian Orme from the Dayton Daily News on Christian film. Brian Orme: In general what do you think of the Christian Film Industry? Is it a good thing or bad? Dawn: Honestly, I haven't seen any decent work come from the Christian film industry--while I won't say that it's utterly without redeeming qualities, it frustrates me that Christians can make bad films and use God as an excuse for why they need to make propaganda. The industry doesn't take character development seriously, which is a major part of good storytelling, and the technical aspects are often bad--but not as bad as the scriptwriting and acting. They complain that they're underfunded, which may be true, but you can make a compelling story for very little monetarily by concentrating on good direction, writing, and acting. Do you think there is a market for Christian films in the mainstream? If so, what would set them apart? I think there's a market for good art, even if that market is smaller than the market for blockbusters. More importantly, there's a need for good art. Christians should stop trying to remake Bible stories or imagine Armageddon in every film; there are so many other stories to explore, stories with spiritual themes or ones that simply come from a Christian worldview (and let's be honest, doing an Armageddon story well probably requires a larger budget than most independent filmmakers can muster). Lord of the Rings is a Christian story, even though biblical characters never appear. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is an explicitly Christian story. The Passion, the only Jesus film that I've found engaging, did very well at the box office. None of these movies came from the Christian film industry, and I think if they had, they would not have been done as well. Are you familiar with films like Road to Redemption, or the new film in theaters now called Facing the Giants? If so, what are your thoughts? I'm familiar with the type of film you describe, though I'll have to say that I haven't seen either of those specifically. I actually don't watch much in the "family" genre (aside from animation, which I find is often inventive, creative); the typical family fare bores me. Do you think there should be categories like "Christian" films and "Secular" films? Are the categories helpful? What purpose do they serve? I don't think those categories help at all. The only people that pay attention to "Christian" films are Christians, who ostensibly make many of those films for non-Christians. Likewise, calling a film "secular" makes it almost dirty in the minds of many Christians. What we need is just good art, stories that matter, stories that will challenge us. What makes a film uniquely "Christian"? I'm going to take the word "Christian" here in its best sense, rather than one attached to the subculture of evangelical American Christianity. Christianity is at heart a story of redemption, of recognizing the brokenness in the world yet finding hope in spite of very real suffering and pain. It's honest. Christianity has a sense of wonder, a love of truth and beauty--truth and beauty have their origination in the Creator, so by gaining knowledge and appreciation of these things we understand a little more of God. And Christianity places importance on people, on relationships. So a truly Christian film would incorporate some of these elements, though the results could vary as widely as The Lord of the Rings to Chicken Run (made by Nick Park, who is a Christian). ^ Top | 1:48 AM | | | 
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