Celluloid Sermons: The Emergence of the Christian Film Industry, 1930-1986

by Terry Lindvall, Andrew Quicke

Christian filmmaking, done outside of the corporate Hollywood industry and produced for Christian churches, affected a significant audience of church people. Protestant denominations and individuals believed that they could preach and teach more effectively through the mass medium of film. Although suspicion toward the film industry marked many conservatives during the early 1930s, many Christian leaders came to believe in the power of technology to convert or to morally instruct people. Thus the growth of a Christian film industry was an extension of the Protestant tradition of preaching, with the films becoming celluloid sermons.

Celluloid Sermons is the first historical study of this phenomenon. Terry Lindvall and Andrew Quicke highlight key characters, studios, and influential films of the movement from 1930 to 1986—such as the Billy Graham Association, with its major WorldWide Pictures productions of films like The Hiding Place, Ken Curtis’ Gateway Films, the apocalyptic “end-time” films by Mark IV (e.g. Thief in the Night), and the instructional video-films of Dobson’s Focus on the Family--assessing the extent to which the church’s commitment to filmmaking accelerated its missions and demonstrating that its filmic endeavors had the unintended consequence of contributing to the secularization of liberal denominations.

287 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Celluloid Sermons: The Emergence of the Christian Film Industry, 1930-1986," is a highly informative narrative that traces Christians' opposition and apprehension towards and then glowing acceptance, of film. Unfortunately, the title is a bit misleading. Generally speaking, the spotlight is on the Protestant film industry (both mainline and evangelical, though by the end the mainline has receded), although producer Ken Curtis' ecumenical approach led him to also reach out to Roman Catholics through films such as "Rain For A Dusty Summer" (1975, p. 163). The focus is also on the AMERICAN Protestant film industry, although there is a chapter on "global film evangelism" that examines the impact of indigenous-produced Christian films such as India's "Karunamayudu" (1978). Granted, no book can be exhaustive, but there is no discussion of films such as Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" (1951), Alec Guinness' "Father Brown" (1954, during which Guinness began to reconnect with his Christian faith), or John Huston's adaption of Flannery O'Connor's novel of the same name, "Wise Blood" (1979). Thus, the films examined by Terry Lindvall and Andrew Quicke are ones that developed and emerged out of an American Protestant subculture. Lastly, although the subtitle suggests the book ends with 1986, it does discuss the changes to the Protestant film industry and films from the 1990s.

The authors begin with the early days of cinema. Many conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics were wary of films, believing that Hollywood was the offspring of Babylon and that the silver screen encouraged lurid and lewd behaviour. However, resistance gradually declined, particularly through the efforts of three key pioneers: James Friedrich, Carlos Baptista, and Irwin Moon. Moon would mastermind the famous "Sermons From Science" (later "Wonders From Science") series that detailed through film the ingenious ways God had crafted Creation; the popularity of Moon's work is a powerful counter to those who insist religion and science are diametrically opposed. Friedrich and Baptista are significant as they represent opposite views on the Christian film industry; the latter asserted that Christian films had to be made by and star people who were themselves Christian, whereas the former thought it acceptable to utilize the best individuals for the job, whether they were believers or not.

As more and more Christian films were produced, filmmakers and distributors became savvy at reaching audiences. Many films were rented for evangelistic outreach or to be played at Sunday night services. These films portrayed Christians struggling with moral dilemmas (the authors note that Christian films sought to form ORTHOPRAXY rather than ORTHODOXY), presented historical "hagiopics" of famous figures such as Jan Hus, served pedagogical purposes (e.g. how to evangelize or administer a church), or exposed audiences to the travails of missionaries working overseas. From the 1970s-onwards, apocalyptic films became especially popular, most notably the wildly successful and suspenseful "A Thief in the Night" (1972). Eventually larger organizations, such as World Wide Pictures (a subsidiary of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) would begin releasing films. Along the way Lindvall and Quicke also introduce readers to the industry's often unheralded and unknown players (many of the films discussed in the book also appear to have vanished; many do not even have IMDB pages), such as the flamboyant and aggressive Billy Zeoli, Ken Anderson (formerly of Gospel Films, who eventually founded his own film company), and the aforementioned ecumenically-minded Ken Curtis.

The ascendance of video, as well as the popularity of James Dobson's teaching films on how to care for one's family, dramatically altered the Protestant film industry. It was no longer viable for churches to rent 16mm films when video editions of films could be acquired for only a few dollars. There were fewer churches services in the evening where films would have previously been screened in the church basement. One suspects too, the general trend of secularization and the advent of other forms of distraction such as video games and more television channels, also contributed to the decline of the Protestant film industry.

As much as Christian films are mocked for their cliched plots and sub-par production, dozens of films were created by earnest filmmakers who strove to produce parables for the silver screen (Lindvall and Quicke are not rosy-eyed partisans; they critique ill-conceived and shoddily-produced works). Films such as "A Thief in the Night" or "The Jesus Film" (1979) have been credited with bringing people to faith in Christ, with the creators of the latter film claiming it has led to over 225 million conversions. Although the Christian film industry has been changed and endured a myriad of challenges, the industry has also been stubbornly and surprisingly persistent. The recently released "I Can Only Imagine" has become a breakout hit, along with the string of films produced by Sherwood Pictures, and I am constantly being hounded on Facebook to sign up for Pure Flix. Lindvall and Quicke's book is a compelling, anecdote-filled account of how the Protestant film industry began during the early decades of the twentieth-century and how it impacted North American church life. After reading "Celluloid Sermons," I definitely want to try to track down some of the films mentioned in the book.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a companion piece to Lindvall's earlier "Sanctuary Cinema," this book is a vast improvement. There's still some surveying here that could be avoided, and some aspects of the history that get repeated in similar ways, but for the most part the chapters here cover really in-depth and interesting topics and are chained together in a more sensible way to give an overall impression of both the content and economics of the developing Christian film industry over time. Some of the industrial aspects get a tad overlooked, such as maybe the economics of the switch to video and the re-emergence of Christian film in the video era, but I largely appreciated the way that studios and filmmakers were covered here anyways, as well as the attention given to things like didactic teaching films and other genres that kind of threw the industry off at times. Overall a more interesting, engaging, useful read than its predecessor, though still with some faults.