All posts from "April 2010"
« March 2010 | Main | May 2010 »
April 27, 2010Sex + Money = New Documentary
A full-length film, slated for October release, examines America’s sex industry
Sex + Money: A National Search for Human Worth, a documentary tentatively scheduled for fall release, is being made in partnership with photogenX, a ministry of Youth With A Mission. PhotogenX equipped students to use forms of media to raise awareness of injustice around the world and seek social change. While Sex + Money is not being touted as a Christian film, several of its participants are believers.
Last December, I spoke with some of the Sex + Money filmmakers while they conducted interviews and research in Washington, D.C. Photojournalist Tim Dyk explained that as Christians, “We need to be willing to go to those areas, be willing to have conversations about sex, about prostitution, about helping people who are coming out of prostitution, because even Jesus wants to [reach out to] prostitutes. He recognized that they are needy people just like anyone else, just like we are.”
The film aims to expose viewers to the problem of prostitution in America, specifically the sexual exploitation of minors, and to guide people to resources for fighting sex trafficking in America. “There’s so many different ways that we can work [against trafficking],” Dyk said. “I just think a lot of this requires the church, as followers of Christ, to walk out in what he’s calling us to do, [and] it can look different for each person. I think people just need to see how the Spirit leads and to see how they can use their gifts.”
Check out Sex + Money webisodes on YouTube.
What Does the Bible Really Say About Being Gay?
That's the premise of 'Fish Out of Water,' but the filmmaker doesn't explore it thoroughly
Our friend Ken Morefield has written a thoughtful commentary on the new documentary Fish Out of Water, which asks the question, "What does the Bible really say about being gay?" But it doesn't really explore it from an objective point of view, and certainly not from an evangelical point of view. The filmmaker, who is gay, seems to assume that Scripture, if it doesn't condone homosexuality, then at least it doesn't outright condemn it.
Writes Ken, "While the film did not persuade me of the truthfulness of the director’s thesis—that an accurate and impartial investigation of the Bible shows that true Christianity does not condemn homosexuality—it does, perhaps, more than most films in this vein provide some hope that a reasoned, substantive debate about the issue might be possible." And: "The film effectively prods the viewer (especially the Christian viewer) to confront the question of how well he or she really knows the Bible. I’ve certainly been around my share of evangelicals who will adopt the rhetoric of 'the Bible says' . . . without being able to specifically expound on a particular passage, much less explain what sort of consistent, coherent interpretive strategy governs their approach to the whole text. If some of rebuttals in Fish Out of Water appear all over the place, some might argue that this could be because so too are the traditional cultural interpretations that frame the argument."
The DVD is now available at First Run Features.
Where Does Webb Stand on the Gay/Christian Issue?
Theologian Denny Burk says Webb's public comments 'anything but clear'
Denny Burk, a New Testament prof and dean of Boyce College, the undergraduate arm of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently answered a blog reader's question about Derek Webb, who has been touring with Jennifer Knapp. Knapp recently came out as being gay -- she talked about it on Larry King Live last week -- and Burk's reader wondered where Webb stood on the issue.
In a blog post titled, "What About Derek?", Burk says he did a little bit of research and concluded that "it's difficult to say" where Webb might stand on the question, "Can one be Christian and gay?" He said that Christians would likely find some "red flags" in some of Webb's comments on the matter, but adds, "I can’t find any instance in which Derek has stated unambiguously what his views are on the moral status of homosexuality. It looks like he’s trying not to speak definitively either way. I suppose the best case scenario is that Derek takes a traditional view on the question though his iconoclastic approach sometimes makes it appear otherwise."
Burk concludes, "My hope is that Derek is at least speaking more clearly about these things in private. His public statements are anything but clear."
Read Burk's full post and leave your own comments on the topic below.
Bo Duke: No Hazzards in This Upcoming Film
John Schneider to star in 'Doonby,' sort of a modern version of 'It's a Wonderful Life'
According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in the 1980s TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, will play a modern-day George Bailey in Doonby. Schneider has played roles in a number of Christian films in recent years.
The title character, Sam Doonby, is a happy-go-lucky drifter who takes up residence in a small Texas town but seems suspiciously immune to the misfortunes that beset the other townsfolk. The film, described as a cross between It's a Wonderful Life and Crazy Heart, is written and directed by British filmmaker Peter Mackenzie.
Tommy Warren is producing with Mark Joseph, a marketing veteran whose campaigns included The Passion of the Christ and Facing the Giants. Joseph also is co-producing the film's soundtrack, which includes music from AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson.
"Doonby" is written and directed by British filmmaker Peter Mackenzie and will be shot at Spiderwood Studios near Austin.
Mercy Me! A Million Downloads!
'I Can Only Imagine' goes platinum . . . and other tidbits from the music world
> So, a million downloads makes for a wealthy band, right? Wrong. One 99-cent download from iTunes nets just 9 cents for the artist. So, for MercyMe, a million downloads adds up to $90,000, split by six people in the band equals $15,000 apiece, spread out over about a decade of downloads, equals, oh, about $1500 a year. Downloads simply aren't a great source of revenue for artists, as this chart clearly shows. The best way to make money online is to sell self-pressed CDs or discs through CD Baby, netting $7.50 or more per album sale.
> Legendary singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, he of 30 albums and multiple awards, is going to let fans a little deeper inside his head -- he's writing a memoir. to be published by Harper Collins Canada in 2012. Cockburn said the idea of writing a memoir had “popped up now and then,” and that it had “always seemed too soon,” but that the project finally seems timely.
Over the Rhine + Joe Henry = Something Amazing
OTR to pair with Grammy-winning producer for next album
Heard some Really Cool News today: The uber-terrific Joe Henry, he of the endless well of creativity, is going to produce the uber-fantastic Over the Rhine's next album. The Ohio husband-wife duo -- Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist -- are headed to LA in mid-May to start the recording process. No release date on the album yet, but I'm already drooling.
Detweiler made the announcement Friday in a long newsletter to fans, which included an appeal to fans to help defray the huge upfront costs of making a record -- in exchange for some goodies in return.
Among Linford's musings: "We are going to make a record that we can’t quite imagine. Hopefully it will be a little bit strange and a little bit wonderful. Hopefully we will, 'Blow the seams out of the songs.' (JH) One thing for sure: We are going to be surprised."
One can't help but appreciate Detweiler's reasons that he and Bergquist want to keep making music. Linford writes:
"One: We believe making music has something to do with what we were put on this earth to do. If we leave our songs alone, they call to us until we come back to where we belong. When we live in the sweet spot of that calling, it gives others (you?) permission to discover the sweet spot of your own calling and live there.
"Two: Both Karin and I have had occasion to bury loved ones. When we put loved ones in the ground, we find that we lose interest in acquiring stuff. We know we can’t take it with us when we go. No, it’s not about acquiring, rather it’s about what we are able to leave behind. That’s what gives life meaning: doing work that you can leave behind, your personal token of gratitude to the world in return for the gift of getting to be alive in it. (We believe the opportunity to make this record with Mr. Henry has everything to do with what we will leave behind.)
"Three: Presence. There is a beautiful passage of scripture that made an impact on me as a child that I have never forgotten. Jesus said that if you help someone in need, someone hungry or naked or thirsty or imprisoned, if you are able to be present with them and soothe them in some way, it’s the same as if God was hungry or naked or thirsty or imprisoned and you found a way to help God.
"There is so much need in this beautiful broken world it can be overwhelming. Maybe the most profoundly satisfying thing about making music for the last 20 years is we have watched people invite our music to be part of the big moments of their lives – a slow dance in the kitchen with someone who changed everything, a walk down the aisle at a wedding, a child being born... Unfortunately, big moments also occur during seasons when it feels like everything is going horribly wrong. We all need music during those dark times too – I know I do. It’s always humbling and amazing to learn that our music can be present in those too-difficult-too-imagine times. In some small way, through our music, it feels like we get to be present too, even when that is
physically impossible. We get to be there in spirit.
"That’s enough to keep us coming back."
And enough to keep OTR fans looking forward to what comes next.
'Crucial That We Not Lose Our Singing Voices'
So says Pepperdine Provost as his university prepares to host sacred song symposium
Pepperdine University is gearing up to host The Ascending Voice II, an international event celebrating sacred a capella music. The mid-May symposium will feature some of the world's leading authorities on this rich style of music, while the daily concert lineup includes performances by top college choral groups, the Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble, and Grammy-winning men's choral group Chanticleer.
I especially appreciated some of the comments from Pepperdine Provost Darryl Tippens leading up to the event:
"Many people think that group singing is in danger of extinction in America," Tippens said. "As financially strapped schools cut arts programs denying children the opportunity to sing; as we become a somewhat passive, listening culture, accustomed to highly produced professional musical recordings; and as mega churches employ bands and orchestras, thus replacing congregational singing with performance, there is a real question as to whether group singing by ordinary people will survive. This concern must be squarely faced—not through complaint, but through action. This is the purpose of The Ascending Voice.
"We think it is crucial that we not lose our singing voices. There is no substitute for the exquisite beauty and power of the human voice joined in harmony with others. Unaccompanied (a cappella) singing is as old as the human species, and long a distinctive feature of Christian worship. We believe it is worth preserving and enhancing.
"Singing has a transformative effect on both the singer and the listener. Group (or congregational) singing has been central to Christian worship for 2,000 years. While it has taken vastly different shapes in different cultures over the centuries, in the East and West, among Protestant and Catholic, charismatic and liturgical traditions—still, it has the power to resonate deeply and move us to tears, to joy, and to action.
"Singing lay at the heart of the Reformation. Singing was central to the Civil Rights Movement (“We shall overcome. . . .”), to the anti-war movement of the 60s. It retains this same transformative power today, but one has to hear it and do it to fathom fully its life-changing power.
“'Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise,'” said Martin Luther. In the words of Karl Barth, the great 20th century theologian, 'Singing is the highest form of human expression. . . . the community which does not sing is not the community.' Art and the sacred have always been intimately acquainted. Sacred music is perhaps the greatest expressions of this truth."
Amen, and amen.
Jennifer Knapp on Larry King Live on Friday
The singer/songwriter, who recently revealed that she's gay, is the featured guest
Jennifer Knapp, a former Christian music star who recently revealed that she is in a lesbian relationship, will be the featured guest on Larry King Live on Friday, April 23. The CNN show airs at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.
The one-time Grammy nominee and multiple Dove Award winner walked away from music in 2003, but has been making a comeback in recent months, doing a number of tour dates and gearing up to release her new album, Letting Go, in May.
Knapp will be joined on Larry King Live by Clay Aiken (a singer who came out two years ago), Pastor Bob Botsford (an evangelical pastor who wants Knapp to repent of her lifestyle), and disgraced preacher Ted Haggard. Knapp is speaking openly and honestly about her lifestyle, while also maintaining that she clings to the Christian faith. Should be a fascinating conversation.
(Photo by Eye Photography)
Casting Crowns, Ingram Big Winners at Doves
Fans vote popular band as artist of the year; Jason Ingram picks up four awards
At Wednesday night's Dove Awards in Nashville, Casting Crowns had a five-year streak snapped as group of the year, but moments later won the night's biggest award as the fan-voted artist of the year.
"To me it's extra special because the fans were voting," Casting Crowns leader Mark Hall said. "It really wasn't anywhere on our radar."
Producer and songwriter Jason Ingram was the night's big winner with four awards, while NEEDTOBREATHE earned three -- group of the year, rock/contemporary album of the year, and rock/contemporary song of the year for "Lay 'Em Down."
For a complete list of winners, click here.
LOST and Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'
Chris Seay weighs in on Tuesday's LOST episode, "The Last Recruit"
Chris Seay, author of The Gospel According to Lost, chimes in on the developments in Tuesday's episode of LOST, "The Last Recruit." (SPOILERS AHEAD) Seay notes that Jack is "a different man; our man of science is now a man of faith." He says that perhaps the episode's best reveal "was the fact that Sayid and Claire may not be beyond redemption," but that the episode's most important came in the few seconds of scenes from next week, when the words on the screen, accompanying images of John Locke, read, "His soul had gone mad being in the wilderness." Seay notes that the quote comes from Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, a book that "parallels LOST in so many ways," says Seay, "because it’s the prototypical framing story, this story within a story. The story that you’re walking through isn’t really what it’s all about." Seay notes that the quote used in those scenes are further indication that, like in Conrad's book, the evil that we should truly fear is not "out there," but within ourselves.
'Lord Save Us' Now Available on DVD
Thought-provoking documentary hits video shelves today
Lord Save Us From Your Followers, one of the more thought-provoking films of 2009, releases to DVD today.
In the film, director/star Dan Merchant, a Christian, wonders aloud why believers he'd met in Africa were so full of kindness, joy, and grace—often the opposite of what he'd encountered with Christians in America, who are often full of antagonistic rhetoric. If our faith is the same as theirs, Merchant wonders, "Why is the gospel of love dividing America?" He takes that question to the streets and to notable personalities, and the answers he gets are revealing.
Learn more about the film, and the DVD, here.
Lady Gaga: Champion of Abstinence?
She used to work in strip clubs and likes to go without pants, but now promotes celibacy
So, the pop culture phenom known as Lady Gaga, she of the scanty clothing and hypersexed music videos and songs, says she's now promoting abstinence. Hypocritical?
Check out my colleague Laura Leonard's insights on the CT women's blog, and weigh in with your own comments and reactions.
A Woman Blesses the Day Her Brother Shot Her
And other fascinating storylines from the flicks at the Full Frame Documentary Film Fest
A woman blesses the day her brother accidentally shot her (Family Affair). An intersection in Florida houses an abortion clinic and a pro-life pregnancy care clinic on opposite sides of the street (12th and Delaware). An eighty-year-old man in Japan boasts he has patented 3,357 inventions (The Invention of Dr. Nakamats), while an eighty-year old man in Appalachia makes a single chair (Chairmaker). A town in Slovakia wakes one morning to find that half its citizens now live in the Ukraine (The Border). An island in the South Pacific loses its residents, who become the world’s first climate-change refugees (Sun Come Up).
A taxi driver in Yemen regrets once working as Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard (The Oath). Two men in Sweden regret having sex change operations—and so they change back (Regretters). A half-Jewish teenager dares to try to assassinate Adolph Hitler (Surviving Hitler: A Love Story), and the denizens of a bar in Greenwich Village dare to stand against the police trying to arrest them for being gay (Stonewall Uprising). A Boston journalist sets out on an epic quest to reunite The Kinks (Do It Again), and a strange assortment of executives and artists set out to revive the slumbering giant that is Disney animation (Waking Sleeping Beauty).
As in years past, the 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival provided a rich and varied mix of major, studio-backed (or purchased) films, and smaller independent works deserving of an audience’s time and attention.
While a great documentary is different in many ways from a great narrative film, at its heart it tells a gripping story. Sometimes it can be a story about a person or place you think you already know: Allen Iverson, Glenn Gould, or Daniel Ellsberg. At other times a great documentary can be about a person or event so gripping you can’t help but wonder, “How could I have not heard about this until now?”
Brazilian artist Vik Muniz goes to the world’s largest landfill to make works of indescribable beauty out of garbage (Waste Land). An Israeli baby broker flies frozen embryos from the United States to India, where the surrogate mothers charge less than their Western counterparts to carry a baby to term (Google Baby). One film follows soldiers on a fifteen-month deployment in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan (Restrepo). Another follows a boxing champion turned Buddhist monk on a single night through the city of Tokyo (Ito—A Diary of An Urban Priest).
Rob Lemkin’s and Thet Sambath’s Enemies of the People took both the Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award and Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award, while John-Keith Wasson’s Surviving Hitler: A Love Story took the Full Frame Inspiration Award. Directors Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus received career achievement honors.
Other films to keep an eye out for include Chico Colvard’s Family Affair, which has been purchased by Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Channel, Google Baby (HBO), and Stonewall Uprising (PBS).
Ken Morefield is an Assistant Professor of English at Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC. He is the editor of and a contributor to Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema (2008, Cambridge Scholars Publishing).
Is the Island a Purgatory? Or Not?
Chris Seay weighs in on the meaning of Tuesday's LOST episode, "Everybody Loves Hugo"
John Ratzenberger: An Angel Who Packs a Punch!
In trailer for Dallas Jenkins' new faith-based movie, the former Cliff Clavin plays an angel
Filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, son of Left Behind co-writer Jerry, has just finished the official trailer for his upcoming movie, What If . . ., starring Kevin Sorbo (the title character in TV's Hercules) and John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin on TV's Cheers and a voice in every Pixar movie).
Sorbo plays a man who turns his back on his high school sweetheart and chases a life of wealth and materialism instead . . . and then an angel (Ratzenberger) appears to show him "what if" he had opted for the simple life of faith, family, and the love of his life.
There's a funny moment in the trailer where Ratzenberger gives Sorbo's character the option of closing his eyes and counting backward from 100, so he can make something clear to him. When Sorbo's character says no, Ratzenberger says "Fine, have it your way," and throws a right cross to knock him out!
Check out the trailer for the film, which is now in its final production stages, here:
What If Theatrical Trailer from Pure Flix on Vimeo.
Movie Watching Advice From Flannery O'Connor
Sister Rose Pacatte has good counsel for film discernment -- courtesy of O'Connor
My friend Sister Rose Pacatte, director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, loves movies, and is a fine film critic for the National Catholic Reporter and other outlets.
In a recent interview with NCR, Sr. Rose gave what I thought was a great answer to a question about watching movies that are rich in meaning but also include potentially objectionable content:
"I think it is futile to approach films by content only, unless parents are checking for what may be appropriate or not for children of different ages," Sr. Rose said. "When we are adults, as Flannery O'Connor said so often in her letters and lectures, we do not need to be treated like 15-year-old girls. The problem, Flannery would say, is that in many 75-year-olds there lingers the mind of a 15-year-old girl."
She went on to cite The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Up, Up in the Air, Precious, The Cove, Food, Inc., District 9, The Blind Side, and Crazy Heart as films that "have depth and provide an ample 'space' for reflection and conversation from the perspective of human and Gospel values, and in particular Catholic social teaching beginning with human dignity. ... We experience films through the filters of our life experience, education, faith and family formation -- and no one sees the same thing in the same way."
Amen, sister.
'Cinderella' to Celebrate Chapmans' Daughter
Rodgers and Hammerstein classic to honor remember Maria Sue, who died two years ago
Steven Curtis Chapman and wife Mary Beth are sponsoring a special presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella next month in Nashville, as sort of a "give-back" to the community for its support of Show Hope (the Chapmans' adoption agency) and to celebrate the life of Maria Sue Chapman, their adopted daughter who was killed in an accident in May 2008 at the age of 5.
Tickets range from $30 to $130, and can be purchased here.
MercyMe Teaches Ticketmaster a Lesson
Popular Christian band doesn't need a ticket broker, or expensive tix, to be successful
It's a longer headline than I'd write, but the title from this FoxNews.com story says it all: "The Miracle of the $10 Concert Ticket: How Christian Band MercyMe Is Taking on Ticketmaster — and Winning."
The article notes Ticketmaster's run-ins with artists in the past, and goes on to note that MercyMe's $10 ticket prices -- with a lineup of multiple bands, to boot -- was such a success (including several sellouts) that the band decided to add a second leg to the Rock and Worship Roadshow this year (tour dates here). The current leg includes MercyMe, David Crowder Band, Family Force 5, Francesca Battistelli, Remedy Drive, and Fee.
"The [2009] tour was a risk for the band, who weren't guaranteed a payday if fans didn't come," FoxNews writes. "While there were off nights, overall the tour averaged 10,000 fans a show, with some camping out in front of venues waiting to scurry to the best seats when the doors opened."
The writer asks, "If these bands can skip past Ticketmaster's fees and still put on a show without skimping on production quality, why can't acts with even larger fan bases do the same? Can touring be both a revenue stream and an affordable opportunity for concertgoers to connect with the musicians they love?"
MercyMe is gearing up for the May 4 release of their new album, The Generous Mr. Lovewell.
The Emergence of Parallel Realities
Chris Seay weighs in on the meaning of Tuesday's LOST episode, "Happily Ever After"
Chris Seay, author of The Gospel According to Lost, chimes in on the developments in Tuesday's episode of LOST, "Happily Ever After." (SPOILERS AHEAD) He notes that it's beginning to become more apparent that the flash-sideways characters are becoming aware of their counterparts on the island, and wonders how it will "change things" when the characters "figure out that connection. Will the two narratives weave into one? How will they utilize their off-island activities to change things on the island?" Seay goes on to say that such knowledge will "ultimately be part of what allows them to defeat the forces of evil, the Man in Black." Seay's new vlog:
Musician Dad Makes His Boy Cry -- But It's All Good
Carlos Whittaker, a new Integrity Music artist, and son are now a YouTube sensation
Carlos Whittaker, a new Integrity Music artist releasing his first album, Ragamuffin Soul, later this month, is getting some online buzz for something entirely different than his debut CD: He's now known as the guy who made his little boy cry.
In a cute-and-funny home video (taken on his iPhone), Whittaker filmed his 3-year-old adopted son, Losiah, dancing in his car seat -- with his older sisters next to him -- to the beat of Beyonce's hit song, "Single Ladies." When Carlos tells Losiah he's not a single lady, the boy initially looks stunned, then begins to cry -- as his older sister folds her arms and glares at Dad! Whittaker recovers and tells Losiah, "Yeah, you are. You're a Single Lady. Sorry...I was just kidding...You're a Single Lady, okay?" And then, to himself, "I'm a horrible father."
Hardly the case. ParentDish calls him an "awesome" father for adopting Losiah from South Korea in 2006. Whittaker is using the resulting media hype to call attention to international adoption, and we think that's awesome.
Check out the video here:
Women & Blacks: No Chance on 'Idol'?
Evidence suggests preteen white girls control the vote -- and they go for the "cute boys"
In a new column titled "Tween Girls Hijack Idol," Richard Rushfield of The Daily Beast suggests that white males have a distinct advantage over other American Idol contestants because 11-year-old white girls do most of the voting with their incessant texting -- the principal means of voting for artists on the popular show.
"[T]ext messaging, it can now be definitively said, has transformed the electorate of American Idol from a diverse microcosm of the nation’s broad middle, to a playground for willful 11-year-olds seeking to reshape the world in their image," writes Rushfield. "Armed with their text messaging superpowers . . . tween girls have stormed the ramparts of Idol democracy and—depending on your perspective—either wreaked havoc upon our national pastime, or given an aging show a fresh wind of underage relevance. Either way, they have made the Idol stage a very different place, and nowhere was the heavy hand of the tween dictators felt more strongly than at the Idoldome during Wednesday night’s elimination show, where in the first big shocker of the season, Michael 'Big Mike' Lynche found himself with the week’s lowest vote total for the week.
"Not only do tween girls seem to prefer their Idols be male, but they also seem to prefer them to be white," he continues, adding that "careful study does point to an irrefutable fact, that in the past few years, 'cute boys' have come to dominate American Idol to an unprecedented degree."
Read the rest of Rushfield's fascinating findings and musings here.
Former Disney Prez to Be Honored
Mark Zoradi to receive Briner Award for 'significant contributions in the world of media'
Former Walt Disney Studios president Mark Zoradi will be the 2010 recipient of the Briner Impact Award, given semi-annually "to recognize those who have made significant contributions in the world of media," according to a recent press release.
Zoradi will receive the award May 1 at CBS Studios during the 15th annual Biola Media Conference, which will "explore how technology and the current economic recession have set the stage for the collision of traditional media models and new digital possibilities."
Briner, author of Roaring Lambs, was an Emmy-winning TV producer who encouraged believers to greater participation in arts and media. Mark Joseph, co-creator of the Briner Award, says Zoradi "has carried forth Bob's ideas over nearly three decades of service at Disney. He's a great example to young people of how far hard work and a commitment to excellence can take you."
New Documentary Explores El Savador's Woes
Despite a new democracy and alleged peace, human rights violations still abound
Return to El Salvador, a new documentary by Jamie Moffett and narrated by Martin Sheen, looks at the reconstruction of a nation torn by civil war (1980-1992), trying to rebuild but still facing human rights violations and other injustices. The film, according to its website, "explores the hopes of the Salvadoran people and helps find significant ways to walk with them in their journey. Return to El Salvador represents the power and audacity of solidarity and challenges North Americans to question the global impact of their government on struggling nations."
Watch the first seven minutes of the film here, and see the trailer below:
'I'd Do What Jesus Would Do'
Exclusive clip from 'Letters to God,' faith-based film opening this week
Letters to God, which opens Friday, is a based-on-a-true-story film about a cancer-stricken boy who works out his faith and feelings by writing letters to God -- and the mailman who is changed forever as a result. You can watch the trailer here, and check out the following exclusive clip, in which the boy, Tyler, wonders if he'll be teased at school for his chemo-induced bald head:
'A Lot of Things We're Waiting For'
Chris Seay weighs in on the meaning of Tuesday's LOST episode, "The Package"
Chris Seay, author of The Gospel According to Lost, chimes in on the developments in Tuesday's episode of LOST, "The Package." (SPOILERS AHEAD) He says "There's a lot of things we're waiting for," but believes the episode had the "best flash-sideways yet" with Sun and Jin. "It's amazing how patient their love is," he adds, saying "it's very 1 Cor. 13." Seay also believes "there is a messianic figure to emerge, and it would make a lot of sense if it's Desmond." But he also believes that "Aaron will be more important as this all comes together," as he predicted in an interview with USA Today this week. Seay's new vlog:
LOST Spoiler: Resurrected Locke Saves Island!
In an exclusive interview with an insider, CT gets the scoop -- mostly -- on how Season 6 will end
In one of the biggest scoops in CT history, we have learned from an ABC junior staffer how the popular TV show LOST will end with its season finale in May.
A camera assistant working on the set in Oahu -- she asked to remain anonymous, giving us only her initials, A.F. -- secretly obtained a copy of the script for the show's last episode and shared it with CT.
In the finale, in a bizarre twist on the whole "flash-sideways" concept, 10-year-old Aaron returns to the island where he is not only reunited with Claire, but apparently has a miracle touch as well. He finds the dead John Locke, lays his hands on the body, utters what seems to be a prayer in a combination of Latin and Egyptian, and Locke slowly rises, Lazarus-like, from his coffin. The risen Locke's first words are, "Where is the imposter?"
When told how to find "Fake Locke," the real Locke grabs a knife and strolls away from the beach. When he finds his "evil twin," Locke stabs him in the heart, killing him instantly. Locke then finds Richard and asks him to round up everyone on the island and bring them to Charles Widmore's submarine by Hydra Island. They all climb on board the sub and leave the island, which Widmore blows up with an atomic bomb -- and this time, it really disappears for good. They then head to Los Angeles, where they will be reunited with their "parallel universe" selves and somehow resolve that ongoing tension. But we don't know how that happens, unfortunately; our source tells us that the final six pages of the copy of her script were accidentally charred in a fire, and are thus illegible. So, some mystery remains intact.
Even though we don't know how it ultimately ends, we do know this much:
A powerful redemption is looming for oodles of LOST supporters!
recent posts
Archives
April 2012March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |