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Christian Film: Beautiful or Banal?


film reel.JPGWorking for Plugged In has its perks. Take today, for instance.

We had the chance to listen and talk with screenwriter/professor/Christian Barbara Nicolosi, perhaps one of Christianity’s most eloquent, most provocative voices when it comes to faith and film. Adam Holz had a chance to interview Nicolosi for an upcoming story and podcast, so I won’t go into great detail here. But I just had to share a couple of her thoughts.

She argues that, rather than bemoaning all the filth that the secular film industry churns out, we should rather marvel at how good it often is—and how it’s getting better. She says (and I agree) that we’re in a golden age of children’s films, thanks in large part to the brilliance of Pixar. A new generation of filmmakers is replacing the industry’s baby boomers, and many of this new guard reject the selfish hedonism that the boomers helped usher into society.

But she also wonders why Christians are so obsessed with making nice, inoffensive and (in her words) inartistic films when, we, as Christians, should be able to speak in more truth, and with more beauty, than anyone. While the secular film industry tells its lies with powerful works of art (she’d argue), we too often speak truth with trite banality. “In my world, the barbarians are coming over the walls,” she says. “I don’t think ‘Precious Moments’ are going to fix it.”

So, with that in mind, let me ask you, point blank. What sorts of films should Christian filmmakers be making? Do you watch Christian film now? If so, why? And if not, why not?