In this episode we turn from our series on Jesus films to discuss the intertextual relationship of Disaster Films and the Bible as an epilogue to our Summer series with Dr. Michelle Fletcher, who used film theory to analyze citations of the Hebrew Bible in Revelation in her book, Reading Revelation as Pastiche: Imitating the Past (with Bloomsbury T&T Clark). Dr. Fletcher is Research Fellow at King’s College, London on the Visual Commentary on Scripture. Over...
Continuing our series on Jesus films, we are joined in this episode by Dr. Siobhán Jolley to discuss the representation of Mary Magdalene. Dr. Jolley recently completed her PhD at the University of Manchester with a thesis entitled, “Reimaging the Magdalene: Liberative Reception Criticism and the Counter-Reformation Magdalene.” In our conversation Dr. Jolley talks to us about how little we actually know about Mary Magdalene from the Gospels themselves, and how her legend and myth...
In this episode we’re kicking off a Summer series on Jesus films! Today we’re joined by Matthew Page to talk about his new book, 100 Bible Films (published by The British Film Institute with Bloomsbury). In our conversation, Matthew talks about the history of movies according to Bible films. He highlights the ways that Bible films can teach us about cinema more broadly rather than strictly about the Bible, though he does address the topic...
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...
In this episode we review the new Dune film by Denis Villeneuve with Matthew William Brake, the series editor for the Theology and Pop Culture series published by Fortress and Lexington Press. Over the course of our conversation we talk about our appreciation of the film, how it did as an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, and how it compares to David Lynch’s much-maligned film version from 1984. Key themes that we dig into...
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...
SPOILERS AHEAD! RUN FOR THE HILLS! Darren Aronofsky’s new film, mother!, is absolutely stunning. I was mesmerized and blown away. Let me say at the outset that one’s enjoyment of this movie is almost entirely based upon two factors: (a) knowing as little about the film as possible before seeing it, and (b) actually figuring out what you’re watching to some extent. If you know what it’s about beforehand, you may find it predictable. If you...
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...
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