With Christopher Lopez on
October 17, 2018
The original meaning for the term, liturgy (a term often used to refer to worship practices of faith communities) described the work of the people for the good of the people. It was such a treat to witness the liturgy of NYCC.
With Catherine M. Barsotti on
July 30, 2018
Daily I was writing about my experience of the films in a journal. So here’s an inside look at some of the films at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.
With Nicholas Wolterstorff on
May 28, 2018
Nicholas Wolterstorff analyzes Paul Shcrader's "First Reformed" in light of Schrader's own writing on transcendental style in film.
With Elijah Davidson on
May 14, 2018
The prudence of developing artificial intelligence, let alone giving said intelligence access to a completely decentralized internet, is a red herring, albeit one that Silicon Valley plies for effective laughs. The real interest of the two episode arc is one that has been common to series creator and show-runner Mike Judge’s work – the ways capitalistic progress tends toward the dehumanization of everyone involved in the system.
With Andrew Neel on
March 8, 2018
An interview with the filmmakers of "Jinn," a feature film which premieres at the 2018 SXSW Conference and Festivals narrative competition. It tells the story of Summer, an African-American teen who is forced to adapt when her mother, Jade, suddenly converts to Islam.
With Gary Ingle on
February 23, 2018
Reclaiming life — that is the task facing the crew of the Discovery upon their return from the Mirror Universe.
With Chris Lopez on
February 9, 2018
I have found the cinematic arts to be the sphere where I search for my identity, my voice. I decided to take this journey to the frigid streets of Park City, Utah, to learn from the Latin American and Latino/a voices at Sundance.
With Roslyn Hernandez on
February 9, 2018
"The Driver Is Red" is at the same time educational, aesthetically pleasing, and suspenseful! The voiceover narration draws you in from the start, and the sketch animation aesthetic remarkably accentuates the clandestine nature of the story.
With Gary Ingle on
February 5, 2018
It has taken almost an entire season of growth, but now the crew of the USS Discovery is finally ready to perform as a fully functioning unit — and more than that, as family.
With The Reel Spirituality Community on
February 5, 2018
Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut "Lady Bird" was one of the best thing that happened to audiences in 2017.
With Andrew Neel on
February 1, 2018
"Man on Fire" is a 2018 Slamdance Film Festival documentary about the bold final act of Rev. Charles Moore, a retired Methodist minister who lit himself on fire in June 2014 to protest the racism of his hometown of Grand Saline, Texas. While in Park City, I had the honor of speaking with the film's Director and Producer.
With Roslyn Hernandez on
January 29, 2018
Reviews of "Tyrel" and "A Futile and Stupid Gesture" along with Roslyn Hernandez' impressions of Sundance 2018.
With Roslyn Hernandez on
January 25, 2018
Apart from the low temperatures, I have experienced the environment of the festival as an interesting mix of friendly confusion, great discussions, excitement, encouraged film-geeking, and gratitude towards the incredibly patient shuttle drivers and volunteers.
With Gary Ingle on
January 25, 2018
For the first time in a long time, my jaw literally dropped at the end of a Star Trek episode.
With Gary Ingle on
January 10, 2018
In the Mirror Universe, the crew of the Discovery is forced to explore a darker side of their personalities.
With Gary Ingle on
November 14, 2017
The Discovery crew's journey into the deep forest of war has truly changed them and helped them find their soul amidst the chaos of the unknown.
With Kevin Nye on
November 10, 2017
The final peace that the season offers us is the redeeming power of community.
With Kevin Nye on
November 10, 2017
Eleven is looking for truth and connection.
With Kevin Nye on
November 10, 2017
Mid-way through the season, "Stranger Things" is firing on all cylinders.
With Gary Ingle on
November 10, 2017
If you want peace, prepare for war.
With Chris Lopez and Elijah Davidson on
November 6, 2017
A conversation between two of our critics about the latest MCU movie.
With Kevin Nye on
November 3, 2017
Stranger Things 2 continues to be a cautionary tale and a fantastic parable about the danger of burying the truth and concealing pain.
With Kevin Nye on
November 3, 2017
Bob tells little Will that the best way to get rid of a nightmare is to stand up to it and tell it to go away.
With Gary Ingle on
November 1, 2017
The message of this episode is simple: we need each other.
With Roslyn Hernandez on
October 31, 2017
I got to sit and talk with best friends Patrick and Justin and filmmakers Chris Karcher and Terry Parrish after watching the film at a screening at Fuller Theological Seminary.
With Kevin Nye on
October 30, 2017
Stranger Things took the time to show that everything is not okay, and that everyone did not live happily ever after.
With Gary Ingle on
October 25, 2017
There is neither Vulcan nor human, Federation nor Klingon.
With Gary Ingle on
October 19, 2017
Harry Mudd’s tale of woe serves as a reminder that those with power should consider the impact of their decisions on the powerless.
With Gary Ingle on
October 13, 2017
Captain Lorca has declared that the Discovery is no longer a science vessel but is now a warship. The problem is that most of his crew would prefer to take part in scientific study aimed at the betterment of life rather than the taking of it.
With Gary Ingle on
October 3, 2017
There is much to love about the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery, which is essentially the show’s true pilot episode. We are finally introduced to the titular starship, which is a ship of mysteries.
With Gary Ingle on
September 27, 2017
The Klingons function not as “the enemy” but as a means to explore and understand how people even within a nation can have completely different views from each other.
With Lindsey Wright on
August 31, 2017
Where to begin? The finale had everything—the beginning, ending, and mending of relationships; meetings upon meetings of both friends and foes; long-hidden or unknown truths coming to light; an ice dragon. It was a lot to take in.
With Lindsey Wright on
August 23, 2017
The episode ends with perhaps one of the most terrifying and haunting images.
With Dr. Robert K. Johnston on
August 21, 2017
As it has done each year since 1973, SIGNIS and INTERFILM joined together to appoint an ecumenical jury to choose that film in the festival’s competition that best portrayed “human experience that is in harmony with the gospel” or best sensitized “viewers to spiritual, human or social questions and values.” I was privileged to be part of the Ecumenical Jury this year.
With Lindsey Wright on
August 16, 2017
Though the episode was clearly about trust, when we offer it and to whom, there is one giant allusion the writers are hinting at throughout...
With Kutter Callaway, David F. Sandberg, Dr. Craig Detweiler, and Father David Guffey, C.S.C. on
August 11, 2017
On Wednesday, August 9, we were happy to host a panel discussion preceding a screening of Annabelle: Creation, entitled "In Defense of Evil."
With Lindsey Wright on
August 9, 2017
What can we take away from this week, besides a rollercoaster of intense emotions? While the plot is narrowing to a handful of stories, it is the unexpected that continues to play a primary role.
With Lindsey Wright on
August 1, 2017
When we are confronted with new information, we must decide to either accept or reject it.
With Lindsey Wright on
July 25, 2017
This week, Game of Thrones explored how trusting our instincts is almost always a risk.
With Chris Lopez on
July 25, 2017
After seeing the hope, goodness, and justice Comic-Con can cultivate in the social imagination, I say with Jacob from Genesis, “Surely God is here and I did not know it.”
With Chris Lopez on
July 24, 2017
Luckily there’s so much more going on at Comic-Con besides the video presentations and the full cast panels, so I improvised and went to check out the other stuff.
With Chris Lopez on
July 23, 2017
When it came time for The Defenders panel, the flood gates opened and the room was buzzing with anticipation. Everyone was excited for a new panel, but no one, including the panel moderator, was ready for what was to come.
With Chris Lopez on
July 21, 2017
The benefit of having line buddies at Comic-Con is that you can take turns holding the group’s place in line so each person can get to the many other panels and events held throughout today.
With Chris Lopez on
July 20, 2017
While Comic-Con officially begins the Thursday of event week, a few panels and screenings are held for the eager fandomites the day before. Among these the most popular is preview night.
With Lindsey Wright on
July 19, 2017
Arya, Sansa, Cersei, and Daenerys have lived through six seasons of incredible pain, loss, torture, and despair, and they have come out stronger and more powerful than any other characters.
With Chris Lopez and Kevin Nye on
May 8, 2017
In lieu of a normal review of Marvel Studios' latest blockbuster, we're excited to feature this conversation about the film between two of our Practicing Critics - Kevin Nye and Chris Lopez.
With Elijah Davidson on
March 20, 2017
SXSW continues to impress me as a festival interested primarily in experimentation in all four quadrants of its program - Music, Interactive, Gaming, and Film.
With Asher Gelzer-Govatos on
March 14, 2017
There were two films that stood out above the rest for me, but then such a strong contingent of others that it became hard to order favorites.
With Elijah Davidson on
March 6, 2017
I’d like to write briefly about the four main referents I noticed in hopes of enhancing your enjoyment of Logan, encouraging you to watch a few great films from the past, and to get at the film’s potential theological imports.
With Asher Gelzer-Govatos on
March 1, 2017
True/false has since become an especially treasured ritual for me, a touchstone of my year in film, every year.
With Elijah Davidson on
February 27, 2017
Batman & Robin’s shares a thematic concern with this new LEGO Batman movie everyone loves - Batman needs a family. Furthermore, Batman & Robin and The LEGO Batman Movie share a key referent too – 1966’s Batman: The Movie
With Asher Gelzer-Govatos on
February 13, 2017
In our present moment, faith has come to be seen by many as residing primarily in the intellect, leading to belief that is conceptual and private. Faith worked out through the will, in the public sphere, tends to lead to uncomfortable choices.
With The Reel Spirituality Community on
February 6, 2017
“Walking together” is what this list most clearly represents. It’s a symbol of the faith and film-loving community of filmmakers and film scholars who are gathered under the banner of Reel Spirituality, each in their own way. We are trying to make beautiful films, to celebrate beautiful films, and to encourage others to do the same.
With The Reel Spirituality Community on
February 6, 2017
The Top Ten Films of 2016 individual lists of each of our community members.
By Kutter Callaway With Martin Scorsese and Makoto Fujimura on
January 27, 2017
We were honored to be joined by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese for a conversation about his challenging, masterful film, Silence.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann. on
January 11, 2017
If one can read in the many cultural symbols the elements of self-sacrifice, self-giving love and a search for truth, beauty and goodness or the struggle with existential darkness, then grace is present. These ideals are what give humanity hope.
With Elijah Davidson on
December 12, 2016
Villeneuve’s filmography is a cinema of collapsing borders.
With Chris Lopez on
December 5, 2016
I think the continued proliferation and success of the comic book genre is due to the fact that our supergods have been narratively and cinematically incarnated. They are the god-women and god-men, the emmanuelles and emmanuels of our “secular, scientific, rational culture.”
With Avril Speaks on
November 29, 2016
Redeeming the media doesn’t start or stop with the content we make. It means seeing cast and crew as a vital piece of what God is creating, and as a result, treating them with dignity and respect.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
November 22, 2016
Human beings’ search for meaning and complete fulfillment is an age-old quest that has concerned humanity since the beginning of time.
With Avril Speaks on
November 14, 2016
I think of stewardship in terms of God’s commands about stewarding our gifts and resources. For those of us working in or aspiring to work in the film/tv industry, we are managing the gift of an art form that has the potential to entertain and maybe even to change lives.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
October 31, 2016
Sometimes I come across intriguing films that struggle with the issues and concerns of adolescents finding their identity and place in the world. Not being the most popular girl in high school, I resonate with those who feel out-of-place, who are rejected or set aside, or simply just do not fit in.
With Steve Vredenburgh on
October 17, 2016
My process is not entirely unlike placing several objects into a blender, throwing the results against the wall, and attempting to describe the shape of the mess that is left behind.
With Andy Singleterry on
October 10, 2016
Some dismiss this anti-technological portrayal as paranoid sensationalism, manufacturing fear for fun and profit. Nobody’s making killer robots, they would say. But such a dismissive response is too shallow. Movies about robots and computers targeting humans act as a sort of collective conscience for our society, warning us of dangers we might otherwise miss
With Avril Speaks on
September 27, 2016
Although other theologians may argue that experience is not to be trusted, the reality is that many of us, just like the ladies in my church growing up, rely on our experiences to draw us closer to God.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
September 19, 2016
With all the expanse of intelligence of human beings and its infinite pursuit for attainment of knowledge, this biological, psychological, emotional and spiritual aspect of human sexuality still defies total human understanding. It is perhaps because what human beings seek through sexual intimacy is the ultimate supernatural existential.
With Jessi Knipple on
September 12, 2016
It is this last aspect of storytelling, as “transformative agent,” that is most interesting to me, especially when it is placed into conversation with the question of “otherness,” specifically, the otherness being addressed in the question “who is my neighbor” that leads to the story of The Good Samaritan. How can the question that begins this story shape how we view the characters in the films we watch?
With Avril Speaks on
August 29, 2016
As we contemplate what stories we should tell, we must contend with whether or not we are willing to take the risk of embracing and reaching out to an audience that is on the margins. The film industry reflects the pulse of its people, and that is true for both Hollywood and independent films.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
August 23, 2016
It is in the analogy of the material world that we grasp a glimpse of the Divine. Religious imagination is grounding for those who use art to communicate something of what it truly means to be human.
With Jared Klopfenstein on
August 11, 2016
One way film contributes to an increase of intercultural shalom is through documentation of the “other.”
With Brett Potter on
July 11, 2016
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.
With Avril Speaks on
June 27, 2016
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.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
June 20, 2016
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.
With Elijah Davidson on
June 11, 2016
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.
With Avril Speaks on
May 30, 2016
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?
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
May 23, 2016
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.
With Kevin Nye on
May 10, 2016
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.
With Colin Stacy on
May 3, 2016
People embedded in history must appreciate the full scope. This is why film festivals hold retrospective screenings: to highlight from whence modern cinema emerges.
With Elijah Davidson on
May 2, 2016
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.
With Avril Speaks on
April 25, 2016
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?
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
April 18, 2016
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.
With Colin Stacy on
April 11, 2016
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.
With Chris Lopez on
April 4, 2016
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.
With Avril Speaks on
March 28, 2016
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.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
March 21, 2016
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?
With Joel Mayward on
March 14, 2016
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.
By Elijah Davidson With Michael Wright on
March 7, 2016
A new Terrence Malick film is an event, though one that invited conversation rather than critique.
With Avril Speaks on
February 29, 2016
What really is wrong with Christian film? Nothing.
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
February 22, 2016
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.
With Asher Gelzer-Govatos on
February 15, 2016
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.
With Elijah Davidson on
February 8, 2016
Taxi Driver suggests that all those other things are products of Travis/America’s deep-seated loneliness. In the same way, church can be about other things too, but those things should be cast in light of our neediness. There’s a hole in me. I believe there’s hole in you. That’s what we have in common. Let’s gather around that.
With The Reel Spirituality Community on
February 1, 2016
We're excited to announce the Reel Spirituality Community Top 10 Films of 2015.
With Avril Speaks on
January 25, 2016
Why have many Christians come to expect artists of faith to create “safe” art as if those are the only stories that are considered legitimate? And why are some resistant to engagement when art shows its capacity to disturb and challenge us to think about life differently?
With Sr. Nancy Usselmann on
January 19, 2016
Exactly how do we bring our faith into dialogue with the culture without losing who we are? How can we become holy in a culture that often points out the opposite? What type of anthropology and spirituality is needed for today?
By Eugene Suen With Alejandro González Iñárritu on
January 14, 2016
My question was: How would a man be shaped by that experience? What’s going on in the mind of somebody who has the will, the endurance, and the resilience to survive? What makes people survive and fight? What is that? And how would a man be transformed and shaped by nature?
With Michael Leary on
January 11, 2016
Bazin had struggled his entire life to find a way to integrate his many different academic interests, even to the point of abandoning his studies at the Sorbonne. The cinema provided this spiritual and intellectual center – and a base from which to think deeply about the relationships between art, culture, and history.
With Elijah Davidson and Kevin Nye on
January 7, 2016
We're watching and talking about the Mission: Impossible films one by one.
With Elijah Davidson on
January 5, 2016
This year, we’ll be changing what we feature in a few key areas and continuing production unabated in the others.
With Elijah Davidson and Kevin Nye on
December 31, 2015
We're watching the Mission: Impossible films one by one.
With Elijah Davidson and Kevin Nye on
December 24, 2015
We're watching the Mission: Impossible films one at a time.
