THIS year’s Cannes Film Festival hosted a panel discussion, “Faith on Film: The Rise, the Revenue, and the New Production Paradigm”. It confirms the ascendancy in commercial terms of recent movies containing unquestionably religious narratives and values.
One of the panellists was Mark Sourian, now President of Production at 5&2 Studios, a Texas-based company founded by Dallas Jenkins, creator of that global hit The Chosen, a series of films about Jesus. Speaking to me from Cannes, Mr Sourian outlined what had made them phenomenally successful.
First, he said, you needed a great filmmaker who also had a deep understanding of the Bible. Dallas Jenkins was such a person, someone who honed his talents making movies in the secular sphere before committing to current work. “As a person of faith he felt nothing in Hollywood or mainstream cinema depicted his understanding of God accurately enough.” More specifically, he wanted to dispel notions of Jesus as remote, and depict him as a real person who gets close to people.
One may wish to debate whether this is a first. Dennis Potter’s Son of Man would be a strong contender. Another reason given by Mr Sourian for The Chosen’s popularity — it has been seen by hundreds of millions around the world, one third of whom had no religious beliefs — is that it meets audiences where they are. “Let the story speak for itself” is a Jenkins mantra.
Mr Sourian, who has had an illustrious career working with Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, believes that the film industry is in crisis. “I suppose there’s become much more of a blurring between the cinema and what you see on streaming.” Some 5&2 productions will screen mainly on digital channels rather than in cinemas. Projects include films featuring Joseph, Moses, and the Acts of the Apostles. Even so, some will get a big theatrical release: The Crucifixion is a prime example.
The panel’s topics included considering shifts in power away from Hollywood’s traditional studio financing to independent Christian foundations where crowdfunding and fan investment determine what kind of films get made. The God’s Not Dead series, despite poor critical acclaim, obtained massive audiences, having grossed more than $100 million, primarily in America. Pure Flix Entertainment (now Pinnacle Peak Pictures), which spawned the franchise, describes itself as a values-driven alternative for families, rooted in faith. They unreservedly argue the case for an Evangelically flavoured belief, employing a variety of scenarios.
These and other productions have attracted a degree of opprobrium from various Christian sectors for lacking an imaginatively intelligent exploration of belief and imposing a highly specific view of what that constitutes. It is against this background that other faith-based companies have felt encouraged to produce their own (better) films.
Angel Studios, initiated by a Mormon family in Utah, tends to specialise in substantial biopics (Cabrini, Bonhoeffer, et al.). Tyler Sansom is an American pastor turned movie-maker. He aims to address the digital age, streaming films that “bridge the gap between faith and culture through redemptive storytelling”. His Learning You works on the struggle to believe when faced with the agonies besetting an autistic son.
On the whole, the quality of scripts, actors, and production values has risen in an era when faith-inspired films have ceased to be just preaching to a niche audience of the converted. Perhaps the huge audiences for these epitomise G.K. Chesterton’s words: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.” That may no longer be the case as these accessible (and far from simplistic) faith movies abound.
It is worth pointing out, however, that there have been numerous bodies, Roman Catholic and Protestant, producing religious movies for a very long time. Most notable was J. Arthur Rank, who used to screen such films at his Sunday-school classes, and this led to his making his own. From this, he branched into mainstream film production and distribution, often of a faith-themed nature and/or deemed “family-friendly”.
Nevertheless, Rank the businessman endorsed the view that the Kingdom of God’s message could succeed only under the guise of entertainment. It is yet to be seen whether these latter-day filmmakers can be serious without always being as solemn as they often are.