Series Site
December 8–21
Jim Finn’s new film, THE APOCALYPTIC IS THE MOTHER OF ALL CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, is a meditation on the life, thought, and legacy of St. Paul the Apostle, as refracted through the various 16mm films, animations, board games, and other Church-produced or -adjacent media that have appeared throughout the decades. Not content to present the U.S. theatrical premiere run of the new film, we’ve invited Jim to further explore the topic by guest-curating a film series comprising a selection of films – old and new, feature length and short – that, so to speak, make Christianity strange again. The series reflects Finn’s fascination with the radical heart of the religion, the (often gaping) disconnections between its theory and its practice in an ever-compromised world, and the eclectic and often strange ways Christianity has manifested in films and other media, made by believers, lapsed believers, and non-believers alike.
“There is a quote from French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that’s as good a summary of the hope of religion as any: ‘Someday after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.’ But soon after any movement of love and fellowship appears, the Creeps inevitably move in to harness that love power for their own ends. This series asks how Christianity has functioned down in the dirty politics of humanity? How has the character, the influence, the God-ness of Jesus manifested itself in the movies – even when JC himself is off screen?