In this episode we’re talking about the new book, Theology and Black Mirror (published by Lexington and Fortress Academic—imprints of Rowman & Littlefield), that was edited by team members from The Two Cities podcast, Dr. Amber Bowen and Dr. John Anthony Dunne. Joining us for this conversation on our favorite technological dystopian show on Netflix are four contributors to the volume, who each tell us what they love about Black Mirror and what they wrote...
In this episode we discuss Asian-American Representation in Film with Abel Vang. Abel Vang is an awarded independent film producer, director, writer, and Assistant Professor of Entertainment Producing at Biola University. Some of his major film credits include: What Lies Below, Bedeviled, and the forthcoming, They Live In The Grey. Over the course of the conversation, Abel gives us loads of firsthand insight into the complex challenges that Asian-Americans face in the film industry. He...
Concluding our Art & Culture series with our fifth and final episode, we turn to discuss the artistic nature of film with Dr. Kutter Callaway, who is Associate Professor of Theology and the co-director of Reel Spirituality at Fuller Seminary. With the 93rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony (“the Oscars”) just around the corner, we discuss in particular the artistry of the Best Picture Nominees from the past year (spoilers throughout). After discussing why Christians should...
During much of quarantine I was helping to co-run an “Equipping Hour” class at my church (our version of Adult Sunday School). The class was called “The Gospel According to Oscar,” which I co-led with my good friend J. D. O’Brien, a filmmaker, documentarian, and videographer (check out his documentary about homelessness in Minneapolis called Out in the Cold on Amazon Prime). This class was sort of a follow-up to one that we did last...
What is it about films like The Revenant and 127 Hours that grips us so much? One of my buddies (J. D. O’Brien) out here in the Twin Cities is a local filmmaker. His first major film was a documentary called Out in the Cold, which you can check out on Amazon Prime. Out in the Cold looks at homelessness in the Twin Cities in the middle of winter (J.D. and his buddy actually spend a week “out...
Coco was probably one of the best films I’ve seen this year. The animations and cinematics were just mind-blowing. If I remember correctly, a special sneak peek at Disney California Adventure mentioned that there were more than 8 billion lights used in the Land of the Dead scene–CRAZY. Also, I grew up with folks that honored Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). While I wasn’t involved with the festivities, it was a treat...
2015 was a strange year for the world. Historic court decisions in the US, riots and political uprisings throughout the world, Wars, terrorism, political civil wars, and terrible tragedies. It seems that the world as we know is crumbling around us. The new year didn’t bring anything that new, but simply a pause to our heated discussions over race, violence, politics, and our very way of life. And it seems that there is no hope...
The trailer for a new film put out by Answers in Genesis has recently appeared. The film is called A Matter of Faith. As one can tell from the trailer, it looks and feels a lot like the recent Christian film, God’s Not Dead. When the latter film originally came out I had my reservations and annoyances, some of which I shared with some friends at the pub, but I decided to let the hoopla...
On March 28th Darren Aronofsky’s Noah will hit the big screens. Here’s the trailer, if you haven’t seen it yet. Big name director, big name stars, lots of CGI and Russel Crowe looking determined-against-all-odds. Good stuff. But the subject matter has a lot of people upset and debating whether or not this is a movie that Christians should support. The main arguments against it are the supposed inaccuracies in Aronofsky’s depiction of the biblical story....
Some Spoilers Ahead (I’m not really sure what counts as a spoiler these days) It is so hard to live up to the hype. Nolan made us like Batman again with Begins and he showed us what the potential of super hero movies were with The Dark Knight. So much so, that people complained the movie was too good for a “Batman” movie. The Dark Knight Rises starts eight years after Batman catches Joker and...
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