'Soul Surfer' Trailer Premieres

by Mark Moring

Entertainment Weekly has the premiere of the new trailer for Soul Surfer, coming to theaters in April. It's the inspirational story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm to a shark attack at age 13 but has gone on to become one of the world's top surfers, thanks to her courage, perseverance, and Christian faith.

AnnaSophia Robb plays Hamilton, while Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt play her parents. The faith angle is clear in the film, but it's not at all "preachy." It's a pretty good surfing movie, with beautiful people and places throughout, and based on one of the most inspirational stories I've ever heard. (Seriously? Losing an arm to a shark attack and not only having the courage to get right back in the water, but going on to become one of the best surfers in the world anyway? I find that, and Hamilton's story, astonishing and incredibly uplifting.)

CT visited the Soul Surfer set last year and interviewed Quaid and Robb; my interview with Bethany Hamilton will post shortly before the April 8 release of the film.

A Few Effing Cuts for a PG-13 Rating?

by Mark Moring

According to The Los Angeles Times, Harvey Weinstein, producer and distributor for The King's Speech, is considering making a few edits to the film to knock it down from an R rating to PG-13 or even PG.

The story notes that Weinstein "aims to rope in more movie-going commoners who normally wouldn’t go near a historical drama about a British king. The plans involve a potentially risky decision: re-editing the movie to excise coarse language and secure a lower rating that will open The King’s Speech to a broader audience."

Weinstein apparently noted the success of the movie in Great Britain, where a 12-and-over rating has helped it to top the box office chart for the last three weekends. "The British numbers are huge because the rating lets families see the movie together,” said Weinstein. “Tom and I are trying to find a unique way to do this that keeps his vision of the movie.”

The film was rated R because of a brief string of f-bombs spoken by King George VI (played by Colin Firth) during a speech therapy session with Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). It's played mostly for humor in the film, and is for the most part inoffensive.

A Closer Look at the Immigration Issue

by Mark Moring

It's one thing to read stories about the complex issues surrounding immigration -- including illegal or "undocumented" immigrants in our midst. It's another to meet a family through the medium of film, where you can see their faces, hear their voices, and better feel what they're going through.

That's part of the purpose of UnDocumented.tv, a new website produced by World Relief in partnership with a Chicago-area filmmaker. They describe themselves as a "media-driven, culture-shaping movement seeking to inspire and mobilize young Evangelical Christians towards championing the needs of immigrants. We’re creating provocative, response-oriented short films paired with intentional experiences for groups and individuals. UnDocumented.tv will inspire Evangelicals to better understand and enter the immigration conversation. We will challenge our audience to move beyond any existing personal or media-driven bias and toward active involvement in social change."

It's a well-done, thought-provoking, Scripture-based call to think and act. It's certainly worth the nine and a half minutes to watch this short film.

New Film Explores Intersection of Science & Faith

by Mark Moring

A new film, The Genesis Code, is beginning to make its way to theaters over the coming weeks and months. The movie, made by Christians in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tackles three main themes—the compatibility of science and faith, sanctity of life issues (especially at the end of life), and academic freedom in the classroom (particularly for students of faith to be able to voice their beliefs).

The $5 million film is an ambitious project spearheaded by Jerry Zandstra, a pastor and college prof in Grand Rapids (he teaches economics at Cornerstone University). Zandstra, a conservative activist in Michigan and the head of that state’s Pro-Life Federation, unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2006.

Zandstra has said that he hopes The Genesis Code stirs up political waters, which is why he scheduled its first two non-local screenings in Iowa and New Hampshire – to be the first two states to voice their preference for the 2012 GOP presidential nominee. The first screening, Wednesday night in Des Moines, will be hosted by the Iowa Christian Alliance Education Fund and The Patriots Fund. Expected to attend are several well-known Iowa GOP politicos such as Steve Scheffler of the Iowa Christian Alliance and Kim Lehman of the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute – both members of the Republican National Committee.

The film itself has its strengths and weaknesses. There’s a 30-minute documentary-style segment that’s especially fascinating, explaining the compatibility between science and faith as it relates to the Genesis timetable (God created everything in six days) and the cosmic timetable embraced by science today (about 16 billion years).

But sandwiched around that is a mediocre film with a relatively cheesy story about a Christian college student journalist who falls for the star of the men’s hockey team, who is not a believer. The young woman is wrestling with expressing her Christian beliefs in the context of academia, and the hockey dude is wrestling with Big Questions because his mom is dying. Good ideas, but not very good execution, with less-than-believable plot developments including an over-the-top conclusion that wraps up far too neatly.

I wish they’d developed the best 30 minutes of the film into a 90-minute documentary, focusing on the “code” itself – the idea that God’s six days of creation are quite compatible with the cosmic time of 16 billion years since the Big Bang. That’s the good stuff in this movie.

Here's the trailer:

'Bella' Star to Build Huge Pro-Life Clinic

by Mark Moring

Mexican actor Eduardo Verastegui, who co-starred in the beautiful pro-life film Bella, recently announced that his organization, Mantle of Guadalupe, is planning to build the largest pro-life women's clinic in the United States.

“I will not use my talents except to elevate my Christian, pro-life and Hispanic values,” Verastegui said at an event where he made the announcement. "We are compelled to step up our efforts and will power of the soul to help the unfortunate, the sick and the poor, strengthen family ties, practice charity and live with integrity. This all will make Christ enter our heart, allowing him to become part of our soul."

Verastegui is active in the pro-life movement, often standing in front of abortion clinics to try to talk to pregnant women, offering life-affirming solutions to their situation. At the recent event, Verastegui introduced guests to some of the babies saved from abortion thanks to his organization's work.

A One-Sided Attack on Zionism

by Gerald McDermott

Editor’s note: Several months ago, we reviewed a pair of documentaries about Christian Zionism. Our reviewer found one of the films, With God on Our Side, to be a balanced look at the situation. Guest blogger Gerald McDermott, the Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Virginia’s Roanoke College, offers a different viewpoint.

The documentary With God on Our Side is anything but balanced. It does not give “both sides their due” but instead interviews only Israelis on the far left and ignores Christian Zionists who defend the rights of Palestinians. The result is a one-sided attack on Israel that treats social and political realities with the same ideological insouciance which the documentary assigns to John Hagee and his band.

One interviewee in the film claims—without rebuttal—that Jews did not live in the land for two thousand years. The truth is that Jewish communities have lived in the land through all this time, flourishing in Jerusalem, Galilee and coastal cities in the 9th and 11th centuries, and then rebounding after being massacred by Crusaders in the 12th century. By the early 19th century, long before the rise of Zionism, more than ten thousand Jews lived in what is now Israel.

Viewers are told of Jews expelling Arabs from villages in the 1948 war for independence, but not that the war was started by Arabs, or that Arab armies from neighboring countries targeted Jewish civilians, or that the war was unnecessary because the UN had offered a two-state partition that the Jews accepted and Palestinians rejected.

The documentary states that Israel started the 1967 war “pre-emptively” but fails to provide the context: after months of threatening war against Israel, Egypt’s President Nasser announced (just days before Israel struck) that “the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon . . . are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived.”

The film then proceeds to charge Israel with “illegal occupation” of the West Bank after the 1967 War on the grounds that Israel failed to comply with UN Resolution 242.
According to this resolution, Israeli withdrawal was to take place in the context of mutual recognition of the right to exist and territorial adjustments to achieve secure boundaries. Withdrawal was ordered from "territories," not "the territories." Both Arthur Goldberg and Lord Carrington, the primary authors of this resolution, have said that the word "the" was purposely omitted because it was not intended for Israel to give back all of her territories, since they recognized that some were needed for secure boundaries.

Despite the fact that most Arab states have refused to recognize Israel's right to exist (a condition of Resolution 242), Israel has implemented the principles of the Resolution three times. When Egypt terminated its claims of belligerency in 1979, Israel returned the Sinai. When Jordan signed a peace agreement, Israel returned land claimed by Jordan. Then in September 2005 Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, only to be met with new attacks on her civilians launched from that territory.

Illegal occupation? Hardly. Israel has made repeated efforts to comply with UN stipulations for the territories, while its Arab neighbors have not.

When the Palestinians appeared to accept Israel's right to exist during the Oslo negotiations, Israel turned over control of major West Bank cities to the Palestinian Authority (PA). But when the PA showed support for terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens in 2000, Israel resumed control of those cities. In that same year Israel offered to return 92 percent of the West Bank, which this documentary dismisses as ungenerous because, it charges, Israel never owned the land in the first place.

Yet Jews have lived in ancient Samaria (the West Bank) for over three thousand years. Jordan unilaterally renounced all claims to this area in 1988 and released legal ownership to Israel at that time. This video suggests Jews should remove all settlements from the West Bank, leaving it entirely for Palestinians. That would be as unreasonable as insisting that no Arabs can live in Judaea.

Besides, what other country has been required to give up land that it won in a defensive war? Do Germans displaced from Koenigsberg clamor and agitate for that German city to be returned to them by the victorious Russians?

The film concentrates attention on suffering caused Palestinians by the new wall. The wall is indeed tragic in many ways. But there is only a passing reference to the attacks on citizens which prompted its building, and the fact that this wall has prevented many such attacks.
Perhaps most disturbing, this video leaves unchallenged one man’s denunciation of Israel as “apartheid on steroids.” This accusation is not only inflammatory but egregiously unfair. South African apartheid was based on race. "Blacks" and "coloureds" could not vote and had no representation in the South African parliament. But Israeli citizens of all races—Arabs and Jews alike—can vote, be represented in the Knesset, and have recourse to the courts.
Apartheid was also a legal system that restricted participation to a minority that had control over a majority. In Israel the majority give equal legal rights and protection to Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population of Israel.

Irshad Manji, a Muslim, has written, “At only 20 percent of the population, would Arabs even be eligible for election if they squirmed under the thumb of apartheid? Would an apartheid state extend voting rights to women and the poor in local elections, which Israel did for the first time in the history of Palestinian Arabs?”

There are also theological problems with this film. First, we are shown only Christian Zionists who use biblical prooftexts to support Israel’s rights to the land. There is no sign of the vast numbers of Israelis and evangelicals who believe that modern Israel is a miraculous work of God fulfilling biblical prophecy while at the same time supporting Palestinians’ rights to self-determination in the land. In other words, viewers never hear of another kind of Jewish and Christian theological Zionism that takes seriously both prophecies of Israel’s return and the biblical mandate of social justice for Jews and Arabs alike.

The second and more serious theological problem is that the end of the documentary suggests that God’s covenant with the Jews (Gen. 12.1-3 et al) was eclipsed by the new covenant for Christians. This is the familiar replacement theology that does not do justice to Rom 11.28-29, and that helped create an atmosphere that required Zionism in the first place. In other words, it was this sort of supersessionism (the belief that the Christian covenant replaced the Jewish covenant) that taught Christians for millennia that Judaism was no longer significant theologically, which then encouraged the belief that Jews were no longer important in a Christian world.

Ted Haggard's 'Resurrection Story'

by Mark Moring

Ted Haggard, whose fall into disgrace was one of the biggest news stories in evangelicalism in the last several years, is the focal point of a new documentary, Ted Haggard: Scandalous, premiering Sunday night on The Learning Channel (click here for listings).

Haggard, former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals and a once-respected pastor, was caught in late 2006 after having a sexual encounter with a male prostitute and later revealing that he had been using crystal meth. Haggard, wife Gayle (author of Why I Stayed) and their five children have since been trying to rebuild their lives.

In a press release, TLC claims to "go inside their new world" where the Haggards are "launching a new ministry unlike any other church ever seen. The eye-opening special will the expose and follow the fascinating, compelling, emotional and controversial journey from the day Haggard announced the opening of his new ministry - St. James Church - located in Colorado Springs, the town he had been kicked out of once his double life was uncovered."

"My family and I endured the darkest hours imaginable in the public spotlight, and have spent the last four years fighting and struggling to rebuild our lives, our faith and our family," Haggard told. "Showing the world the new chapter of our lives will hopefully inspire others to find their own path to overcome their struggles and embrace the power of acceptance. The church is open to all, even those who have committed the darkest sins."

It's the second cable documentary starring Haggard. HBO aired The Trials of Ted Haggard two years ago this month.

'King's Speech' Tops Heartland's List

by Mark Moring

"This top ten list represents the best of our Truly Moving Picture Award-winning films from 2010," said Jeffrey Sparks, President and CEO of Heartland Truly Moving Pictures. "We feel it is important to highlight these standout films and the positive impact they have on audiences."

To see the entire list, click here.

King David Headed for Big Screen . . . Twice!

by Mark Moring

Directors Scott Derrickson and David Cunningham, both Christians, are in the early stages of helming major films about King David.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Derrickson is "getting his slingshot ready" to helm Goliath, about the popular Bible story of David and Goliath.

Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still) will helm the film that THP reports will have "a modern vibe that harkens to the spirit of films such as 300 and The Bourne Identity." The film is being produced by Temple Hill, which also was behind 2006's The Nativity Story.

Meanwhile, Cunningham (The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, To End All Wars, The Path to 9/11) told CT he will helm Day of War, the first in a series of 3D films based on the Lion of War franchise, which tell the story of King David and his "mighty men." (Concept art from the studio is pictured here.)

Grant Curtis, who produced the three recent Spider-Man films, will produce the Lion of War movies. Cunningham's GiantKiller Pictures (get it?) has optioned rights to all five Lion of War books, to be released by Zondervan, starting with April's Day of War.

Cunningham tells CT that Day of War will be a “major motion picture in the vein of Lord of the Rings.” And his GiantKiller Pictures website says the films "will be realized in 3D with the supernatural aspects of the film literally hovering in the audience."

Stay tuned to CT Entertainment for further developments on these films.

Whittaker's Viral Video Wins at People's Choice

by Mark Moring

Almost a year ago, we blogged about how Integrity Music artist Carlos Whittaker and his son had become YouTube stars with a brief video in which he inadvertently makes his young son cry. (Check it out at the bottom of this post.)

The video, "Single Ladies Devastation," has received more than five million views, and just last week, it won the "Favorite Viral Video Star" at the People's Choice Awards. Of course, Whittaker isn't the star of the video; it's his son Losiah, who begins weeping and wailing (and possibly gnashing his teeth) when his dad, at the wheel of the car, tells his son he's "not a single lady" as Losiah sings along (with his older sisters) to Beyonce's hit single. Losiah's reaction is the big moment, and then seeing Whittaker try to recover (even mouthing the words "I'm a horrible father") is simply hilarious.

Whittaker has used the video's fame as a platform to raise awareness of adoption; Losiah, now 4 years old, was adopted from South Korea in 2006. Whittaker blogs here. And here's the video again:

George Beverly Shea to Receive a Grammy

by Mark Moring

George Beverly Shea, who celebrates his 102nd birthday in a few weeks, will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Grammy Awards.

Shea, one of the oldest living persons to be honored by The Recording Academy, still performs publicly on occasion. He recently joined longtime colleagues Billy Graham and Cliff Barrows at an event in Charlotte celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Over his musical and ministry career spanning more than 80 years, Shea has produced more than 70 albums of hymns, including nine CDs, with RCA and Word Records. He has already received ten nominations and one Grammy Award (1965) from The Recording Academy.

Not for Sale II: Join the Fight Against Trafficking

by Mark Moring

It's late in the evening on Human Trafficking Awareness Day, in the middle of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, so I just spent a half hour watching Not For Sale II, a new documentary about the problem worldwide.

The 30-minute film isn't very slick or high gloss, but then, neither is its topic. Beneath the lipstick, high heels and come-on smiles, many of the world's prostitutes are devastated shells of women who desperately hate their lives and would do anything to get off the streets and out from under the iron fist of their pimps and the sex trade. One of the young women interviewed in this film said she didn't fear death, even if she ended up going to hell, because hell would be better than her current life as a sex slave.

Filmmaker Robert Marcarelli and his team interviewed sex slaves (current and former) and the leaders of several organizations that are actively fighting the issue globally, including in the United States. The film doesn't take a Christian perspective, though some of the organizations featured, including International Justice Mission, are clearly driven by biblical faith. But the fight worldwide is clearly one of justice and compassion, hallmarks of an active Christian faith.

Click here to watch the trailer, purchase the DVD, or arrange a screening.

'Children of Haiti': A Picture of Survival, Hope

by Sarah Pulliam Bailey

A new documentary, shot before last year's massive earthquake, puts the number of orphans in Haiti at about 500,000, a number that has gone way up since the January 12, 2010 quake.

Alexandria Hammond's Children of Haiti, airing on PBS tonight at 10 p.m. (check local listings) offers the survival stories of three teenage street boys, also known as the sanguine ("soulless"). Shot in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, the film captures the different factors that create obstacles for the boys, such as scarcity of jobs and education.

The documentary offers a stark contrast between Haiti's beautiful landscape and its urban counterpart. One of the boys has been sleeping on streets since he was 8, one abuses paint thinner, and the other boy sometimes stays with his impoverished mother and stepfather, but often survives on his own.

In Creole, the boys often offer their analyses of the Haitian political leadership, expressing simultaneous dismay and hope in the government.

“We don’t have any type of relationship with the foreign world,” Denick says. “And now our president, who is supposed to be helping us, is the one who’s throwing us into a hole.”

Because the film was shot before the earthquake, we can imagine that the issues the street boys were facing have only multiplied for the children in the country's capital. The United Nations estimates that the earthquake left more than 220,000 people dead and more than 1.5 million homeless in Port-au-Prince. Many of the children lost parents in the earthquake, struggling to find basic resources like food and clothes in makeshift tent cities.

When the documentary follows the same children over three years, we learn that two of the boys enrolled in a school for street children but eventually dropped out. Another boy had a son with his girlfriend, suggesting that abortion was briefly up for discussion.

The film offers a glimpse of Haitians' religiosity through scattered quotes or songs referencing God. Before the earthquake, the State Department estimated that about 85 percent of Haitians practiced some form of Christianity, most commonly Catholicism.

"Haiti is going to change. Haiti must change. But we have to put our hands together," Antoine says. "It's then that we'll honor ourselves as people with liberty, equality and brotherhood. Then God will bless Haiti."

Rebecca St. James to Tie the Knot

by Mark Moring

St. James said, “We are truly amazed at finding our dreams and ideals met in the love we’ve found. We are exceedingly grateful for this precious gift from God.”

Her signature song, “Wait For Me,” released in 2000, has long been a rallying cry for teen girls committed to abstinence and purity before marriage. St. James, who recently signed with Provident Label Group’s Beach Street/ Reunion Records, will release a new worship album in April.

Turning into Gods?

by Mark Moring

TV host and filmmaker Jason Silva is working on a documentary called Turning into Gods in which he explores "mankind's journey to 'play jazz with the universe' ... It is a story of our ultimate potential, the reach of our intelligence, the scope of our scientific and engineering abilities and the transcendent quality of our heroic and noble calling."

The film proposes to investigate "the texture and color of our next refined and designed evolutionary leap," suggesting that we will someday become what philosopher David Pearce calls "Paradise Engineers." Silva quotes Stewart Brand: "We are as gods, and we might as well get good at it."

Interestingly, our latest cover story, "Chasing Methuselah," explores some of the same ideas, while asking if we who believe in eternal life should even care about such possibilities.

Here's a teaser trailer for Turning Into Gods:

TURNING INTO GODS - 'Concept Teaser' from jason silva on Vimeo.