Creation

All across the UK the posters are going up announcing the UK opening of Creation on 25th September. The film Creation explores the different sides to Charles Darwin - the man who some believe had ‘the biggest single idea in the history of thought’. Even today, Darwin’s legacy is at the centre of contemporary debate about our understanding of who we are and what it means to be human. This film explores the implications of Darwin’s theories, and the way that tragic events in his family life influenced his doubts about God. Creation is based on the book Annie’s Box by Randall Keynes (Darwin’s great-great-grandson). It is an emotional journey into the grief that shaped one of the great scientific minds of the last 200 years.

This film is guaranteed to spark many conversations about God, Darwin, evolution, Christian faith, suffering and the nature of humanity. Damaris are delighted to provide a host of relevant outreach resources, including downloadable clips from the film, specially created videos, guides for outreach events, home groups and church services. They are all completely free thanks to the support of the film's distributors, Icon.

CS Lewis: Beyond Narnia

If you enjoyed The Narnia Code earlier this year, you may also be interested in viewing CS Lewis: Beyond Narnia - an engaging biography" of the creator of the land of Narnia and the magical beings who dwell there. It was filmed in Oxford, where C.S. Lewis lived, worked and imagined the tales that make up the Chronicles of Narnia.

Sci-fi updates

• The BBC has announced that David Tennant is to appear as the Time Lord in the spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures. He will appear over two episodes of a new 12-part series of the CBBC show, which starts in September. The same news item notes that Doctor Who may be heading for the big screen after a spokeswoman for BBC Films confirmed that "a script is in development".
• Seen the new Star Trek film yet? If you are a fan, you may enjoy this Guardian article on the Starship Enterprise as a classic of everyday design.

Star Trek links

The film Star Trek was released earlier this month. It got a definitive thumbs-up from a select group from Infusion who went to see it. If watching it made you want to check this prequel against the original series, you may be interested in Memory Alpha, a collaborative project to create the most definitive, accurate, and accessible encyclopedia and reference for everything related to Star Trek.

See also:

• Wikipedia on Star Trek (2009)
• Damaris Culture Watch on Star Trek
• Christianity Today Movies on Star Trek

The 10 most redeeming films of 2008?

What do irresistible robots, racist curmudgeons, and sensitive pachyderms have in common? They're all key characters in the ten films that Christianity Today has nominated as last year's best redemptive movies.

Film showing: Black Gold

Remember the blog posts about the Black Gold film last year? Black Gold is a film about fighting the injustice that coffee growers in Ethiopia face day-to-day, which traces one man's fight for a fair price.

The film will be shown at Loughborough University on Wednesday 22nd Oct in the EHB atrium. Fairtrade stalls and refreshments from 6.30pm. Film Screening @ 7.30pm. The film is supported by imago, ethics and enviro society, people and planet society and CAFF (Charnwood Action For Fairtrade)

Renewed strength for the weary

Following an earlier post that sparked interest in it, some of Infusion watched Chariots of Fire last night. In the film, Eric Liddell reads from Isaiah 40:

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

[stained glass window in St Bernard's Church, Wengen, Switzerland]

The obligatory Olympics post

The 2008 Olympic Games commence today after what seems to have been a very long build-up.

I caught this morning's TFTD on the Olympic Games are a metaphor for life itself with a reminder of Paul's use of this metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9. I also appreciated the mention of Olympic athlete Eric Liddell , who was immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire.

[Posted on 08/08/08]

Keep taking the Tablets...

Hundreds of pieces of Hollywood movie memorabilia are up for auction on 1 August. The autction will include the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments (click on item 8) from the 1959 film Ben-Hur. The film starred Charlton Heston and is famous for its chariot race. The tablets were made in consultation with experts in their field and only five pairs of the tablets are known to still exist.

If you prefer not to let Hollywood act as your commentary on the Ten Commandments you might be interested to read God's good life: the Ten Commandments for the 21st century (David Field), Mere Morality: What God Expects From Ordinary People (Lewis Smedes) or Smoke On The Mountain: an interpretation of the Ten Commandments (Joy Davidman).

The “Bambi Factor”

Disney films have rarely been seen as contributing much more to environmental awareness than the creation of a clutch of cuddly talking animals to the cause. However, a new book by a researcher at Cambridge University is suggesting that, far from just cute, Disney icons like Bambi, Nemo and Baloo are the all-singing, unsung heroes of the green lobby.

According to academic David Whitley, Disney’s screen fables have been helping successive generations of children to develop “a critical awareness of contested environmental issues” ever since Snow White in 1937. Far from simply offering sheer escapism, he says the films carry important messages about our relationship with the natural world. Conservation is so central to Bambi, for example, that the film is credited with having inspired many 1960s environmental activists at an early age. Read the full story.

Impact of An Inconvenient Truth

"Heating Up for Global Warming Research and Policy" is an article (from a library magazine) which looks at how effective the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth has been in spreading the word about global warming. The article looks at newspaper coverage of the topics related to global warming and climate change and notes that the film received its theatrical release in June 2006, and media promotions began 1 to 2 months before that. Newspapers have shown a marked increase in the coverage of global warming news in the past 15 to 18 months, the film won an Oscar, and Al Gore was named as co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts. The article concludes by saying that:

"..it takes more than winning Oscars and Nobel Prizes to combat global warming..... Everyone, from large multinational corporations to individuals, is joining the debate on the important issue of global warming and climate change. More important, people are looking for much more than just words to solve the problems. The resources in this article should give you a starting point and should help you stay informed, become educated, and begin communicating about global warming."

Read any good film reviews recently?

It was good to read an article entitled Hooray for the internet movie database in this week's Technology Guardian as I normally link to the relevant Internet Movie Database review if I'm publicising an Infusion Film Night. Jack Schofield notes that "the IMDb is still the best place for movie trivia, but few people realise its history as a net pioneer" - the service was actually set up in 1990 and the first web version of the database went live in 1993. Like Jack, I've used it for a long time - I remember promoting it to film studies students and researchers in mid-1990s.

An inconvenient truth?

First the Oscar-winning film made by former US Vice-President Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, was distributed to UK secondary schools. Then a Kent school governor attempted to ban the film from secondary schools. Subsequently a High Court judge ruled that the film can be shown in England's secondary schools. It was subsequently reported that the judge said that the film contains "nine scientific errors". Mr Justice Burton said the government could still send the film to schools - provided it is accompanied by guidance giving the other side of the argument.

Then last week Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the UN were jointly awarded The Nobel Peace Prize 2007 for "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change". In the accompanying press release, the Nobel Committee said: "By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control."

If you haven't already done so, then watch the film - and decide for yourself whether words of the mealy-mouthed High Court ruling or the 2007 Peace Prize citation are more likely to encourage individuals to act on global warming. Want to do something now? Then download 10 simple things to do to see ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Amazing Grace: Wilberforce on film

The DVD of the film Amazing Grace comes out today. There is a commentary on the film from Damaris’ CultureWatch which concludes that ‘the relevance of this film for our own age can hardly be overstated’. The film is also reviewed by the Internet Movie Database and Damaris (the latter includes questions for discussion).

The film’s US website has a lot of additional material about the film. There’s also a UK Faith Resource for church groups to learn about the impact of William Wilberforce's faith, courage and compassion, using clips from the fim as discussion starters.

More on Black Gold

Black Gold is now on release in cinemas and here's a collection of reviews of the film. Also, some press releases :

• The Fairtrade Foundation


• Pressureworks


• Traidcraft
  

National cinema release of 'Black Gold'

Just received the latest Cafédirect e-newsletter, which has alerted me to a forthcoming documentary about the injustices of the international coffee trade industry: Black Gold.

The film follows the journey of Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co. in Ethiopia, as he travels around the world to find buyers willing to pay a fair price for his coffee. The film opens your eyes to the international coffee trade and demonstrates how every person who makes the conscious choice to ask for Fairtrade coffee can genuinely make a difference.

Black Gold is released in cinemas nationwide from 8th June and Cafédirect is one of the official sponsors of the film release. Cafédirect state they are "delighted to be supporting Black Gold, to raise awareness of the film and the issues of trade justice". Try the Coffee Calculator to see how much of what you pay for coffee goes to the producers!

Locally, the film is due to be screened at Nottingham Broadway from 6th - 12th July.

Top 50 religious films

The Church Times has recently posted a guide to the top 50 religious films of all time. It is an interesting selection and the reasons behind the choices are explained in detail here. The top film, The Mission, is included in the Parkinson film collection, so we'll try to offer a viewing over the summer.