Lessons from the Music Industry
Repeatedly, Christian filmmakers (and those who follow their work) are told that the Christian film industry is following the path of the Christian music industry, just a few years behind. What if we could leap ahead? What if some filmmakers decided they didn’t want to follow that path, but forge their own? Could they catch up with the Christian music industry?
In an article for The Washington Times, Julia Duin reports about seeing a classic-folk band at a local coffeehouse. The leader, a Peabody graduate, is also the Sunday morning worship leader at a church in the Baltimore area. Fascinated by Bob Dylan’s surrealistic lyrics that “hint at realities,” he said he is trying to “revitalize Christian music and bring it to a level of deep art…Things are hinted, not said. You have to seek and seek before you find.”
When Duin contacted Mark Joseph, he commented that Christian artists “…prefer to be called ‘artists,’ period, because they believe the modifier [Christian] keeps people away.”
What if we just produced films that caused people to seek and seek to find God in them? Frequently throughout scripture, God tells us that when we seek Him, we will find Him. Might the same be true of our films?
If movies were produced that way, what would they look like? Are there any films you’ve seen that made you look for God, rather than being an outright portrait of Him?
“If movies were produced that way, what would they look like? Are there any films you’ve seen that made you look for God, rather than being an outright portrait of Him?” There it is – that’s what we should be doing!
Oooh excellent! And priceless!!
December 5th, 2008 at 5:27 am
It’s the sign of a good storyteller, you show, don’t tell.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:10 pm