The Ministry of Motion Pictures Podcast

Affirm Films has been one of the most significant players in the modern faith-based movement since the rise of the Kendrick Brother's films. At the helm of Sony's faith-based imprint is Executive Vice President Rich Peluso. Rich helped found Affirm Films and has been leading his small team to build Affirm into the faith-based Titan it is today.

In part one of my interview, Rich talks about how Affirm was founded, he gives us a brief history of Christian film, and describes the characteristics and challenges of the modern era of faith-based films.

We're going to do something a little different in this episode. We're going to get a practical crash course on The French New Wave. I know some of you are asking why. But the reason is simple. The French New Wave, in my opinion, offers a near-perfect role model for advancing the art of Christian film. Christian filmmakers have always felt themselves to be on the margins of cinema, and so did most of the French New Wave filmmakers. Christian filmmakers feel unsupported and believe they face an impossible task with impossible limitations. So did the French New Wave filmmakers. But guess what? The filmmakers of the French New Wave revolutionized cinema. They told their stories their way with little intervention. Their stories and methods were completely unorthodox and scandalous. And they did so with meager budgets, industry resistance, and limited options for distribution -- and to top it off, their films were made in the french language. And they created the most single most significant revolution in the history of cinema.

My guest in this episode has written one of the most lively, insightful and readable books on the French New Wave, titled A History of the French New Wave. He's the Wheatley Professor of the Arts at the University of Georgia, teaching film history and theory. His name is Professor Richard Neupert.

Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer discusses how the dramatic nature of doctrine can be a helpful framework in the creation of Christian films. This metaphorical guide opens a door for filmmakers to use the artistic strengths of our cinematic medium to envision profound displays of practical theology. He begin by talking about how today's cinema has a preoccupation with darkness and distopian views of the world, and provides an example of how the Christian filmmaker can answer that. I also ask Dr. Vanhoozer about films and novels that he enjoys, and he leaves us with sound advice for the advancement of our genre.

A few years ago I got on an airplane with a book called Pictures at a Theological Exhibition. I thought I'd be able to get through 5 or 6 chapters. I only made it through half of the first chapter. I crawled through the chapter bit by bit, reading and rereading, underlining and taking notes on the end papers - Not because it was hard reading, but because the concepts and implications were fascinating. It took the return flight home to get through that first chapter, which was titled The Discarded Imagination: Metaphors by which a Holy Nation lives. That chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

A few months later I took the same flight and same book again, and returned to that same chapter to digest it even more.

The author of that book is my guest on this episode. His name is Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer.

Dr. Vanhoozer is Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He's written numerous books, including Biblical Authority After Babel, Faith Speaking Understanding, Everyday Theology, and soonto be released - Hearers and Doers, A Pastor's Guide to making Disciples through Scripture and Doctrine. Dr Vanhoozer is also a classically trained pianist.

What contribution does Dr. Vanhoozer's work on the drama of doctrine provide the Christian filmmaker? That's what this podcast is about.

What are some core values that Christian filmmakers should strive for in their work? According to Dr. Mark Coppenger, who supervises the doctoral program in Aesthetic Theology at SBTS, two of those values should be "truth-likeness" and cinematic craftsmanship.

What place should Christians have in the cinematic art form? It seems in the not-so-distant-past, Christians and their institutions considered going to the cinema as verboten. Given the power and reach of film, why didn't the church embrace the cinema as a tool to reach the world with the Gospel? As we answer these questions we do need to recognize the real challenges that Christian filmmakers face, that making film is a massive and costly team endeavor, and that the world rejected Christ, so we should not be surprised when the cinematic powers-that-be reject our films.

These questions are just some of the conundrums Dr. Coppenger and I wrestle with in this episode.

Have you ever wondered why the church, particularly in Protestantism, has historically had a hands off position when it comes to the arts and creativity? In our efforts to remain faithful to Scripture, with the exception of music, we seldom engage in, or encourage the pursuit of, any of the other art forms. And it seems many Christian circles completely reject the arts.

Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the cinema.

Is there an incompatibility between the arts and theology?

My guest in this episode supervises a doctoral program at SBTS called Christianity and the Arts. His particular focus in this program is a track called Aesthetic Theology. He is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, and his name is Dr. Mark Coppenger.

Dr. Coppenger is also the managing editor of the Kairos Journal, and is on the board of Bible Mesh. He's written a number of books including Moral Apologetics For Contemporary Christians, For Such a Time as This, and is editor of the book A Skeptics Guide to Arts in the Church. He's also led the advisory board of my film company, Glorious Films.

Since Dr. Coppenger has spent so much time studying the relationship of aesthetics and theology, in this episode, I wanted to tap Dr. Coppenger's thinking on a Christian view of aesthetics before we start wrestling with issues of Christian filmmaking, which we'll get to in the next episode.

Screenwriter Sean Paul Murphy has more than a decade of experience in the Christian film industry. In this episode he gives us his hard-hitting, experienced perspective on the current state of the Christian film industry, and talks about distribution, church support, Christian worldview, and "one-man-bandism." He also encourages filmmakers to be very clear on the goals of their films, and talks about the difficulties navigating in the current streaming market.

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Screenwriter Sean Paul Murphy continues to chronicle his decade-long career in the Christian film industry. With 12 produced films under his belt, Sean's experience provides a window on one segment of the Christian film industry, and despite the limitations he faced, his desire to reach people with the gospel often succeeded in surprising ways. Sean's experiences are sometimes exciting, sometimes cautionary, but always entertaining.

With 12 Christian films under his belt, and more than 10 years working in the Christian film industry, Sean Paul Murphy has a valuable perspective on the last decade of this unique industry.