What is an Adventist Filmmaker?

[Stephen Eyer]

At one point in time being an Adventist meant you didn't go watch movies in the theater. I can remember when I was 14 years-old my aunt brought me to see my first movie in an actual theater - "Stand By Me" - not only was I a bit nervous because I was actually watching a movie in a real theater, but to make matters worse the movie was rated "R".

I remember wondering, once I got a chance to look around, why this could be considered such a bad place. Afterall, they served delicious popcorn, had comfortable seats, and the movie was bigger than anything I'd ever seen - and sounded great! The whole experience was amazing, life changing. I was hooked.

Almost 20 years later, I'm now not only watching movies in theaters (along with most of the rest of Adventism), but also making them. The power of story, like it captivated me back then, still moves me today. And what is even more exciting is that there are many other Adventist who have caught the bug and want to be a part of this magical experience called filmmaking. I'm looking forward to meeting the storytellers of the future on this site and seeing their work on the big screen one day.

So what is an Adventist filmmaker? What stories do we have to tell that are relevant today? What do we bring to the table from our religious experience that others might benefit from? How does our faith impact the work we choose to make? I encourage you to join the discussion on this site, with your peers, and in the stories you choose to create.

[Gary Reece]

Stephen, I can so relate to what you describe in your inital movie going experience. As a teenager I recall my little sister asking why there was a long line of people as we drove by. Our parents briefly explained and we knew to drop the subject.

It was my last year at Union College when a Catholic girl talked me into going to my first movie. We knew the dean occasionally drove by the theater. If you were seen going in or leaving, you were a step away from being expelled. We watched Three Days of the Condor. It was several years before I went to another theater, but not because I didn't like the movie.

For those of us with such upbringing, it creates severe internal conflict when our interests and abilities are naturally aligned with something with such a moral stigma. Nearly two decades after my Union days I pursued what my desires had calling for. I completed a degree in Film/TV and went on to acting school.

Then I auditioned once for NYPD Blue. I knew as I read the lines in that audition that my stay in Hollywood was in question. That day I knew I could either use my energies to promote stories for God, or I could pretend that promoting material out of line with His character wasn't going to affect me.

Now I guess as I think of being an Adventist Filmmaker it really comes down to what it means to be an Adventist. Am I a filmmaker that calls himself an Adventist, or one that is an Adventist? Is there an audience for movies that promote Christian themes? Can we pursue what our talents seem aligned to without compromising our experience with Christ?

The conflict we feel is really no different from that of anyone caught in the struggle of wanting to serve their self desires versus serve the purposes of Heaven. It was the same conflict Lucifer went through when Christ urged him to set aside his self focus and return to compliance with God's plan.

Having now been through some of life's most serious experiences, my intent is even more resolved. I am starting to understand why the apostles had a singular purpose after comprehending what Christ had done by dying, then returning to life and then heaven. Their mission became to share the story of salvation and get others on board. Even threat of death did not detour them to this end.

This is what it means to me to be an Adventist. And as a filmmaker... The story is there, and we have some of the most powerful story telling tools ever invented at our disposal.

[Thomas]

I think you are right on Gary, we are called to use our talents in the creative arts to draw humanity closer to God and His principles, that lead to a better life even here on this planet!

Fortunately for me I was raised in both a typical Protestant home, but at the same time very free thinking, open minded Californians. That is the legacy of my family for generations, and becoming an Adventist back in 1970 did not bring that mind set to an end, hardly. It was because of that upbringing and being a progressive sort of person that I became an SDA. Adventism is the most progressive religion in the world, and if you are constantly learning and engaging in "perception change" then it is only natural in your spiritual quest to end up as an Adventist.

....and that leads me to the main reason for this reply, THE GREAT CONTROVERSY. It was as both a law enforcement major and history minor [plus being heavily involved in historical research,] that this book had such a dynamic impact on my life. Reading it lead to my next stage of perception change and understanding of the Bible!

To this day I find myself defending the book against its detractors, who always seem to be picking at straws to silence the book's influence because it brings out spiritual truths that make them un-comfortable.

I know all of this well having been a theology major at SMC back in the day when EG White bashing and little red book burnings were the status quo and if you questioned it, well you were rode out of town on a rail, along with having your character bemirched just to frost the cake.

Personally, THE GREAT CONTROVERSY, if done right, would be a block buster film. Remember what I said though,<<i>i> if done right. that is the catch.

I've observed three feature films of late that demonstrate what this GC film could be like, and it is awesome.

Yes, the technology is out there now, and available to the small film maker, to produce super movies with award winning FXs, cinematography, and over-all effect on the audience.

It would appear that we are finally having our artistic young people coming out of the woodwork of the church seeking to improve their talents, and they are not being beat back too bad now.

One more comment, the SDA thing about the sin of going to the theatre, when I was at SMC [now Southern Univ.] while taking a class on the Church Manual, I found some things in there so man-made, and total twists on EGW's words, that I began referring to it as "The Talmud" or the "Talmudic" writings. I did this openly and got in just as much trouble as I did for not acceping Des Ford as God's Prophet for today.

EGW predicted that it would be the visual arts that would do a great work at the end of time, just as it did at the beginning of the Advent Movement.

So instead of wasting our time on antiquated evangelistic efforts, let's utilize modern technology and art to share our quite unique message.

[Larry Davis]

Thomas, can you give me details on EGW predicting the role of visual arts during the end time? Where can I find this quote? Thanks.
Larry D.

[letmesaymmmm_]

this is true ,,,,, i believe GOD SAID that we should not b in the company of evil...

we should not b in the courts of ungodly n communication with evil doers...

other the hand a GOD believing film maker .,,, the message is self explanatory,,,,


CLEAN HEART & A STRONG MIND in unison with CHRIST..


YA DIG?>?/!!

[MIke]

I don't know what an Adventist filmmaker is, but I would think that as Christian filmmakers we should be making films about poverty, we should be making films with and about prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, sex addicts, the man dying in the gutter, films that reach out and embrace members of the gay/lesbian/transgender community and others who are persecuted in our society. I think that's a little tiny bit of what being a Christian filmmaker would entail.

[Thomas]

Mike, this reminds me of a song I like on the contemporary Christian radio station, about if we are the body of Christ, then why are the feet going, why are not the hands healing, etc.

Evangelism WITHOUT the work of caring for humanity, is a total waste of time, and will be what separates the true believer from the religion of fluff and fantasy.

Combine this work with Biblical truth, and you got it right on!

This is the true balance, kind of like diet and exercise, take away one element, and the results are off balance!

What was that spoken of in the New Testament about 'true religion undefiled before God,.........finish it up.

Or this, ...."Is this not the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal they bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to they house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
THEN shall they light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be they rereward......" Isaiah 58 and so forth, and on, you get it!

Part of the work of the plan of redemption is to restore the lost image of God in man, and all that this involves.

Since God has given me the talent to be a film artist, then I know where my efforts should lie.

....and while at the SONscreen Film Festival, I was really encouraged getting to see so much potential talent that could help to bring to the screen the message for the world today!

[David Brillhart]

An Adventist Filmmaker.... what an oxymoron. This, I imagine, is the pure propagandist, prepared to spin anything in favor of their agenda.

A filmmaker, on the other hand, is someone who strives to tell a story through their craft. The relevant story is that of the physician who in the recent documentary Triage, sacrifices safety to provide much needed medical services to the victims in the Rwanda genocide. Or the the true story of two government workers who collected the world's greatest modern art collection only to give it all away to the National Gallery at the apex of their lives, so others could enjoy it like they did.... (Herb and Dorothy). Or the story of a group of Latinos who fought with everything they had to salvage the largest urban community garden in the world, only to loose to greed and misunderstanding (The Garden).

Sometimes our stories are about truth and many times... its just a story for story's sake. Unfortunately, if its truth we are after... no one is in possession of the truth. It is an impossible objective.

Those who think they have the truth, are observed slaying those who (they believe) don't have the truth. That's their calling. Belief is a result of anti-belief. "I believe something wholeheartedly" because "I don't believe something (usually the opposite) wholeheartedly."

The filmmaker's job, my job, is to say/shoot it like I/they/we see it, even if it contradicts my/their/your own value system and my/their/your own agenda. Tell the story at all costs.

Can an Adventist, a Seventh-day Adventist do that?

I plan to.
Brillhart

[Rajmund Dabrowski]

It's not that I ever disagree with David ... For a good while I held a view that it terms of art and filmmaking Adventists have little to say. Yet, as I reflect on the adjective "Adventist" in the Adventist Filmmaker, I believe the "Adventist" makes the profession richer simply because of Whom we speak in what we do. But I resonate with David that there is a realm we have not really entered, and yet it is there to be enriched because of our beliefs and the quality of life we are committed to.
--Rajmund Dabrowski

[Thomas]

"An Adventist Filmmaker.... what an oxymoron. This, I imagine, is the pure propagandist, prepared to spin anything in favor of their agenda."

Thanks for the reality check Dave, religion too often is blind dogma, I believe what I want to, got my blinders on, looking neither to left or right, straight on, full speed ahead, brain in total neutral!

I remember this Adventist fanatic type, to whom I had to point out some obvious problems in his thinking. His reply to my plain, reasonable, and totally irrefutable observation was to lower his face and tell me that I was just spiritually blind, and off he went, without even trying to give me a rational answer.

Over the years of my life, exploring the realm of spirituality seeking God and that elusive thing called truth, I was lead in an increditable series of events to Adventism.

At the time I had become somewhat of a conservative Calvinist, although I still clung to a lot of my more liberal, California, free thinking, upbringing.

The result was that when brought into contact with Adventist basic doctrines, the only honest response I could follow was to acknowledge its obvious truthfulness, that is if I still accepted the scriptures as the infallible Word of God. So the next step in my spiritual evolution was to become an SDA.

What I am leading up to here is this, one of the most important things I saw about Adventism was the progressive nature of it. I gathered that from studying the history of the movement [reminds of what Emerson said, that there are only two parties in the world, the establishment, and the movement,] and the lives of the founders.

Every other religion in the world today has gone back to what the ruling establishment has always promoted, blind obedience to their dogma, and the destruction of individuality. [ ...resistance is futile, be absorbed,...]

What I had always observed about the God of the Scriptures, and what I had gotten from my upbringing, was that God is rational, reasonable, and expects the same from His creation, or at least wants us to be like, that is. That is part of restoring the lost image of God in man, restoring in us the ability to be rational, and reasonable, to be understanding and totally tolerant of others wherever they might be in their spiritual growth, or lack thereof.
In the history of His dealings with mankind, God was very understanding when dealing with those who were ignorant of His ways, [except with the heathen who were determined to just outright murder the believers, and even then not always, allowing them to get away with it while those they murdered openly forgave them,] but real hard on those who knew better, especially with those who professed to be following Him while manifesting the traits of Satan.

This is the sort of God I found in Adventism, and in the writings of the movement, usually that is. We have our share of leaders and people who would be better off becoming papists or christiana theocracy types.

So, I think if you are a real SDA, following along in the spirit given by Christ from the beginning, you don't have a propaganda agenda, or a narrow view of the world to promote, but you will be objective, and sensitive to what is true, to reality that is.

As Wolfgang Von Goethe so well said, "Few men have imagination enough for the truth of reality."

And in that mentality you can, as the great philosopher of film once put it, "The filmmaker's job, my job, is to say/shoot it like I/they/we see it, even if it contradicts my/their/your own value system and my/their/your own agenda. Tell the story at all costs." [LOL]

[Thomas]

I needed to insert this final thought,

"His reply to my plain, reasonable, and totally irrefutable observation was to lower his face and tell me that I was just spiritually blind, and off he went, without even trying to give me a rational answer."

Commenting about this reminds me of the story of the hippie college student back in the 60s, whose thinking had become muddled due to the ingestion of certain herbs and weed, who when confronted with some reality replied, "Hey man, don't confuse me with the facts"!!!!!!

Obviously, a lot of religious fanatics, and zealots, must be smoking some really strong spiritual dope!

Have a nice, and blessed day!

[MIke]

"Every other religion in the world today has gone back to what the ruling establishment has always promoted, blind obedience to their dogma, and the destruction of individuality."

In general I agree, except I might say every religion and not every other religion. The problem with religion is that it's man made. Like someone much smarter than I said, "Jesus is the savior, not Christianity."

I think as Christians we should adapt this as our motto, "As Christians we apologize for being self-righteous, judgmental bastards."

[Thomas]

Right on Mike, could'nt agree more, although when I refered to religion, I was thinking of what Christ taught, not man.

I love the original Adventist movement and the progressive nature of it, the seeking after becoming a true worshipper "in spirit and truth", not following some man-made agenda. We need to get back to this.

"In the days of the Reformation, the gentle and pious Melanchon declared, 'There is no other church than the assembly of those who have the word of God, and who are purified by it."

Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4 [1884] page 237