"The religious dimension of Chinese cinema is, it has been observed, a "triple lacuna" in contemporary scholarship: in research on religion in China, in research on Chinese cinema, and in interdisciplinary research on film and religion. From 2002 to 2012, independent filmmaker Gan Xiao'er directed t
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hree low-budget features that portrayed rural Christianity in China, a subject almost entirely absent from both Chinese mainstream media and independent films. In this article, I analyze Gan's films by locating them in their social, political, and religious contexts, by comparing them with other Chinese films, and by linking them to the tradition of Western films that portray spirituality. I observe a progression in themes and style from Gan's first feature, The Only Sons, CN 2002, to his third, Waiting for God, CN 2012. I seek to show that Gan developed a restrained directorial style in order to connect with the spirituality of Chinese peasants. Although he had to grope in the dark on many aspects, his engagement with Christian themes has greatly expanded the narrative space of Chinese cinema. "(Abstract)
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"This two-part volume contains a comprehensive collection of original studies by well-known scholars focusing on the Bible’s wide-ranging reception in world cinema. It is organized into sections examining the rich cinematic afterlives of selected characters from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament;
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considering issues of biblical reception across a wide array of film genres, ranging from noir to anime; featuring directors, from Lee Chang-dong to the Coen brothers, whose body of work reveals an enduring fascination with biblical texts and motifs; and offering topical essays on cinema’s treatment of selected biblical themes (e.g., lament, apocalyptic), particular interpretive lenses (e.g., feminist interpretation, queer theory), and windows into biblical reception in a variety of world cinemas (e.g., Indian, Israeli, and Third Cinema)." (Publisher description)
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"Filme sprechen fast alle unsere Sinne an. Das Zusammenspiel von Licht, Farben und Musik erreicht die Menschen unmittelbar, berührt und bewegt die Zuschauenden. Ganz wie ein gelungener Gottesdienst. Das Massenmedium Film eignet sich auf ganz besondere Weise, Menschen mit den zentralen Themen des Le
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bens und des Glaubens in Verbindung zu bringen. Auf diesem Weg dienen die Filme dazu, die biblischen Deutungsangebote lebendig werden zu lassen. Das Buch bietet rund 20 erprobte Filmgottesdienste, unter anderem: Ziemlich beste Freunde; Walk the line; Schindlers Liste; Pretty Woman; Into the Wild; Luther. Filmgottesdienste zu Kurzfilmen, Praxistipps zur Vorbereitung und Durchführung von Filmgottesdiensten, juristische Basisinformationen und Listen mit geeigneten Filmen sowie Bezugsquellen runden das Buch ab. Alle Beiträger haben langjährige Erfahrung in der Arbeit mit Filmgottesdiensten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The first part of the book is an overview of the history of films which offer substantial images of Mary. They include the films specifically about Mary and her presence in the life of Jesus films [...] In the second part of the book, which has been designed especially as an aid to teachers, eight
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particular focuses on Mary in the Gospels are used as reference points for the Mary Films. For each of these eight focuses, scenes from particular films are described briefly but in some detail so that teachers can pick and choose what they might like to screen and know what features are to the fore in each sequence. At the end of each section, there is a brief overview followed by a listing of the key themes for this focus on Mary’s life. In the third part, there is more detail on the apparition films and in the fourth part more detail on the Marian figures and metaphors." (Introduction)
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"Die Filmwissenschaftlerin Dagmar Petrick präsentiert Andachten zu 25 Kinofilmen wie etwa "Billy Elliot", "Die Truman-Show", "Das Leben der Anderen", "Horton hört ein Hu", "Fahrraddiebe", "Die Verurteilten" oder "Erin Brockovich". Das hervorragende Material eignet sich für die persönliche Andach
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t, für Hauskreise, Gemeindegruppen und auch Gottesdienste. Dabei werden die Filme jeweils auch kurz nacherzählt. Impulse und Fragen helfen außerdem, die Brücken zu Glaubenselementen oder biblischen Wahrheiten zu schlagen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This article examines the depiction of women and gender within Coptic Orthodox video films or “hagiopics” produced between 1987 and 2010. As part of a recent religious renewal, hagiopics have expanded, altered, and reinvented traditional stories of saints and pious figures and have also generat
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ed, within this traditionally patriarchal setting, a wider space for the articulation of female voices. While their inclusion can be seen as potentially empowering for women, this paper suggests that during Pope Shenouda III's reign (1971–2012), the films became a powerful vehicle for broadcasting the church's conservative teachings on female power and authority, marriage and marital dissolution, spousal abuse, and femininity. By highlighting an array of exemplary female characters, hagiopics capture women's role as custodians of a distinctive Coptic ethos and of family and communal cohesiveness. The films’ emphasis on women's physical modesty, submissiveness, and obedience to male figureheads also hints at the modern church's anxieties about women's increasing autonomy in choosing marriage partners and their growing demands for more equal treatment within the church." (Abstract)
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"Da der Staat sein früheres Medienmonopol weitestgehend verloren hat, ist eine liberalisierte und demokratisierte öffentliche Sphäre entstanden, die divergierende und miteinander konkurrierende Sichtweisen ermöglicht. Neue hegemoniale Bestrebungen gehen nun jedoch vor allem vom Pfingstchristentu
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m aus. Ghanas Pfingstkirchen haben am lautesten ihre Stimme in der neuen Öffentlichkeit erhoben und adressieren ihre Botschaften weit über ihren bisherigen institutionellen Rahmen hinaus an die Allgemeinheit der Bevölkerung. Sie haben dabei großes Geschick bewiesen in der Nutzung neuer Medientechnologien, wie in der Aufnahme populärkultureller Vorstellungen und Ausdrucksformen. Diese neuartige öffentliche Position der Religion stellt somit eine große Gefahr für den Nationalstaat dar. Dieser kann seine Deutungshoheit von Kultur nicht mehr durch eine alleinige Macht über die offiziellen Medien ausüben. Ghanas Pfingstkirchen bedrohen mit ihrer betont transnationalen Ausrichtung die nationale Einheit des Staates. Ihre Imagination einer Gemeinschaft von Gläubigen basiert in großem Maße auf medialer Vermittlung, sie ist deshalb nicht mehr territorial gebunden. Ihr der Logik des Marktes geschuldetes Expansionsstreben, welches religiöse Inhalte mit Formen der Unterhaltungsindustrie verschmelzen lässt, spricht Gläubige als Zuschauer an. Die massive Präsenz der Kirchen in der öffentlichen Sphäre macht ein Zugehörigkeitsgefühl zur christlichen Gemeinschaft damit unabhängig von lokalen Bindungen etwa an die physische Präsenz eines bestimmten Kirchengebäudes. Das Christentum bietet so eine alternative Identitätsgrundlage für das Individuum. 'Wiedergeborener' Christ zu sein ist eine Form der Identifikation, die exklusiv ist und damit inkompatibel mit anderen Entwürfen von Identität, auch mit einer nationalen. Dies führt letztlich zu der Frage, in welche Richtung sich dieses antagonistische Verhältnis zwischen Religion und Staat entwickeln wird." (Zusammenfassung und Ausblick, Seite 87-88)
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"Drawing a comparison between religion and cinema-going, this text examines a range of contemporary films in relation to key theological concepts. Cinema as a religion-like activity is explored through cognitive, affective, aesthetic and ethical levels, identifying the religious aspects in the socia
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l practice of cinema-going. Written by a leading expert in the field, "Theology Goes to the Movies " analyzes: the role of Cinema and Church in Western culture; the power of Christian symbols and images within popular culture; and, theological concepts of humanity, evil and redemption, eschatology and God." (Publisher description)
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"Founded on the 22nd of October, 1955, in Paris, by pioneers of Protestant film work, INTERFILM is an international network of Church film and media institutions as well as dedicated individuals with the goal of coordinating dialogues between Church and film. Directed by the terms and aims of the Wo
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rld Council of Churches (WCC), it includes members from the Churches of the Reformation and the Orthodox Churches, but also Jewish people and representatives from the Catholic tradition, insofar as these latter are not active in SIGNIS. The fact that INTERFILM exists is due to the steadfast engagement of far-sighted personalities, and it is high time to finally acknowledge their film-cultural activities with a separate publication. I am pleased that this is possible through international involvement and in different languages, even if we must do without a consistent translation of all of the contributions. It is aimed at focusing the attention of the current INTERFILM members and partners on the journey up to now and at reflecting on the present state of dialogue between Church and film." (Foreword, page 8)
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"In this article I examine the elective affinity between Pentecostalism and the vibrant video-film industry that has flourished in the wake of Ghana’s adoption of a democratic constitution. I argue that, as a result of the liberalization and commercialization of the media, a new public sphere has
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emerged that can no longer be fully controlled by the state but that is increasingly indebted to Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism and video-films come together and articulate alternative, Christian imaginations of modernity. Seeking to grasp the blurring of boundaries between religion and entertainment, I examine the pentecostalite cultural style on which these alternative visions thrive. My main concern is to investigate the specific mode through which Pentecostal expressive forms go public, thereby transforming the public sphere." (Abstract)
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"In this essay I have tried to show how, by taking as point of departure an understanding of religion as a practice of mediation, Pentecostalism has increasingly ‘taken place’, so to speak, in the public sphere as a result of Ghana’s turn to democracy and the liberalization and commercializati
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on of the media. Relatively undisturbed by the state, but all the more indebted to the emerging image-economy, Pentecostalism has spread in space, disseminating signs and adopting formats not entirely of its own making, and been taken up by popular culture. In the entanglement of religion and entertainment new horizons of social experience emerged, thriving on fantasy and vision and popularizing a certain pentecostally oriented mood. This movement of spatial extension, as I tried to show, is at times criticized from within, as pastors and believers fear to loose control. Yet, the fact that, on the level of experience, distraction and devotion are kept apart cannot be summoned in defense of an ontological difference between cinema and church, entertainment and religion. At the same time it would be too easy to simply write off the public appearance of Pentecostal-derived images as mere entertainment, as if the format of entertainment would completely absorb the religious and, in a sense, put an end to religion. The point is that in Ghana, Pentecostalism is alive and kicking exactly because it casts religion in a new (postmodern?) form, which is geared to mass spectatorship and part and parcel of Zerstreuung. Zerstreuung is meant here in the sense of ‘the dispersed, centrifugal structure of mass phenomena’ (Weber 1996: 94) which, as Benjamin showed, is condensed in the technology of film as it blows apart the prison of metropolitan space by ‘the dynamite of the tenth of a second’ and offers adventurous travelling among the ruins (1978:236), and puts together its imaged elements under new laws, which require new ways of reception that parallel the process of recording." (Conclusion)
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"As a result of the liberalisation and commercialisation of the media in the wake of Ghana's return to a democratic constitution in 1992, there has emerged a new public sphere which has been successfully and effectively colonised by Pentecostal-charismatic churches and led to the rise of a Pentecost
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alite public culture geared towards Christian entertainment. This paper focuses on the popular video-film industry, which stays close to audience expectations and deliberately appropriates Pentecostal styles of representation. Examining the entanglement of cinema and church, video-filmmakers and pastors, I argue that the marked presence of Pentecostal styles of representation in the public sphere contributes to the spread of a social imaginary geared towards the recuperation of the project of modernity under the new condition of an open public sphere, characterised by the retreat of the state and the overwhelming presence of market forces." (Abstract)
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