The very reason I use film to "disrupt" students during Peacemaking class...
When we turn on a song, read a book, look at a painting, a sculpture, a play, or a film, we yearn for that great triumph of emotion. The conquering of time. Sure we might intend to think about the piece, yes, understand and analyze, yes, but it is emotion we seek, consciously or not, first and foremost. The experiencing of emotion, even anger and grief, is the process of opening. It is an emotional disrobing. And this is the point of it all. We can better understand ourselves and others without the layers of lies and bullshit that art helps pull away. The more effective a piece is at pulling away layers, the greater its worth to humanity...
...Movies aren’t made for movie scientists. Anyone can understand any film if they are open to it. I firmly believe this. There is no correct way to understand a movie, even if the director believes there is. In reality a movie is difficult because of our resistance to it. We resist these films (of Holy Cinema) because they peel. Peel when very often we’d prefer to keep our layers intact...
...The peeling of layers disrupts routine living and thinking. And though this disruption is vital, it takes enormous mental and emotional strength to allow it. - Kartina Richardson
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What is Holy Cinema (5% of film)?
"The Holy Cinema in one way or another always reveals Death’s presence and our movements around it. In every frame it reveals this. Because Time is hand in hand with Death, it is often through time that awareness of death is embraced and indeed many difficult films fall also into the category of slow cinema. This isn’t at all grim, it is true." - Kartina
What is Deadly Cinema (95% of film)?
"The Deadly Cinema however denies Death’s existence. Of course a deadly film may show the process of dying or the point of physical death (adept at emotional pandering they frequently do), but this is meaningless. This is dull. The Deadly Cinema simplifies or dismisses altogether the quiet relationship of light and dark. This simplification is overwhelmingly attractive." - Kartina
(Photo: Insert most Academy Award Winners here)
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How might this be translated in the fabric of our first world culture, including how we understand Church and Spirituality? I might suggest that "deadly cinema" almost completely represents the Christian Church of the first world in America. It denies death's existence - especially at funeral services, especially during Lent, especially on the "mission field". Meaningless, dull, and overwhelming attractive. Salvation. Church.
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“In the Christian life, discipline is…not a rigorous effort to keep oneself or others under control and to acquire efficiency in human behavior…but rather the human effort to unveil what has been covered, to bring to the foreground what has remained hidden, and to put on the lamp stand what has been kept under a basket. It is like raking away the leaves that cover the pathways in the garden of our soul. Discipline enables the revelation of God’s divine Spirit in us.
Discipline in the Christian life does indeed require effort, but it is an effort to reveal rather than to conquer. God always Calls. To hear God’s call and allow that call to guide our actions requires discipline in order to prevent ourselves from remaining or becoming spiritually deaf. There are so many voices calling for our attention and so many activities distracting us that a serious effort is necessary if we are to become and remain sensitive to the divine presence in our lives.” - Nouwen
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I Am Sam
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