Thoughts From a Friend

Good morning,
This morning I am trying something new. Earlier I wrote on a new movie called Jesus Camp. To hear people's thoughts on the movie since that writing has been amazing. Fortunately, an old friend, Jon wrote on his extended thoughts on films like Jesus Camp to me via e-mail. I asked him if I could add to our thoughts by putting his e-mail on my blog and he graciously complied. He graduated with a deegree in film from Calvin and now lives on the east side of the state working in media. There is some wonderful wisdom within his writing. If you get 5 minutes please take time to read his thoughts on documentary films over the past 5 years.



sorry--i haven't had the opportunity to see this film yet, so we can't dive too deep into a discussion on the film itself. instead i'll work around it, dealing more with political docs in general and giving you some links that widen the scope a bit. from what i understand from reading, the film is plagued by politics. i'll agree with this assesment because the preview of the film provided enough evidence. if you have the time, the chicago reader's review is excellent (as they always are) and worth a few minutes, if not more.


i don't have a problem with politics (i would label myself a moderate liberal), but i have a real problem with political documentaries. especially the slew of docs that have come up in the last 6 years or so (michael moore, morgan spurlock, handful of recent iraq war films, jesus camp etc). for one, because these films are 'political,' a dichotomy is created, one side against the other for the rest of the film, which i don't think is a fair portrayal of any reality. more so, they often exploit both the subjects and the viewers to the point where truth is blurred... and this is when you can feel yourself being manipulated by the filmmakers (most easily spotted in editing and assemblage of the 'story', ie rhetoric).

from what i've studied, its all about where you inevitably stand before watching the film (any film actually). i think in the case of jesus camp, its rather unfair, because the majority of those watching the film are likely to be many steps removed from this practice of faith, even if they too are faithful christians. for example: say an atheist liberal goes to see jesus camp: its contents are representative of an extreme that she don't believe in. this extreme is drawn-out and emphasized over and over, related to politics, thus, probably making it all the more extreme, and in the end, making the liberal atheist viewer comfortable because really her views have not been challenged, they have only been confirmed. and those opposed to the films point of view, perhaps become engaged only to refute it as a lie. for jcamp, the best point of criticism i can make starts before we even watch the film: the filmmakers choice to record the events of a community that explicitly relates itself to conservative christian politics defeats the purpose for most. to me, its an example of how poorly trained filmmakers are these days (or how fragmented we really are) that they can't even approach a subject objectively, let alone choose a subject that will allow and objective approach. sounds an awful lot like our current political make-up in the states, which i find petty and waste of the last four years but that's a different rant.

those who i believe can balance a film like jesus camp and lead viewers through the murk, and raise interesting questions like you did in your post, stand in-between the two sides before the film is projected on-screen. they understand and have been affected by liberalism and christianity, perhaps practice both in their lives and find a really apt marriage of the two that is similar to the way jesus radically lived, abandoning the axe when everyone else was looking to pick it up and strike the nearest naysayer. they can de-mystify the fundamentalism and 'campiness', and can de-politicize the liberalism. unfortunately, i know very few people who can do this effectively because, for one, its really challenging.

when i was at calvin, i took a documentary filmmaking class with james ault, a visiting sociologist/filmmaker from massachusetts. his personal life and professional pursuits fit perfectly into this conversation. in the 1960s, he was an anti-war radical at harvard, lived in a commune, and practiced atheism. in 1987, he made a film for PBS called born again: life in a fundamentalist baptist church, and extension of his PhD dissertation. its a moving, objective and balanced story of a small community in new england with some intensely real scenes on conversion, adolescents, and day to day life with fundamentalism. incredibly, his experiences making the film led him to leave his atheism and become a christian. when i took his class (with only 9 other students! i heart calvin), his personal life really spoke to me: essentially, he found deeper relationships through christianity. he wrote a book on his 20 years of experience with the church that includes a history of fundamentalism in america but its release feels a little late ( cs monitor review). the book is available at amazon or, even better, fuller's library. if you could get a hold of the movie (maybe a prof at fuller has it on VHS?), it would go well with a fundamentalism + film forum or something: a picture of fundamentalists in the 1980s / picture of them in 2006, one objective, the other highly subjective, and i'm sure there are other examples one could dig up.

i'll cut it off here and look forward to hearing back. what are your thoughts on jesus camp now that you've had some time to reflect? best of luck in keeping up with school--hope you are doing well in everything otherwise.

(i almost managed to not write anything about the tigers here in detroit...what a memorable weekend[!]...i've never seen so many grown men cry...i've been watching/listening to the tigers since day 1 of the 2006 season so if you want to get into a serious talk on baseball, i'm all for it...).

a friend

jon


AND HERE ARE SOME LINKS THAT HE HAS ADDED TO THE DISCUSSION...

nick

sure you can post it to your blog, include/exclude whatever you see fit for that space. i knew that i sometimes tend to get long-winded, thats why i opted for email over blog comment (i've had blog comments that were lenghty get erased in middle of writing before).

i've done more 'looking around' since i emailed you. some useful links:

http://www.myspace.com/jesuscampmovie (for clips of scenes and the trailer)
http://blog.myspace.com/jesuscampmovie (offers a director's statement and discussion forum)

AND

president of the NAE's [national association of evangelicals]--ted haggard--response to the film:

http://tedhaggard.com/jesuscamp.jsp
(funny/ironic? this link came up as the only sponsored link in a google search for 'jesus camp' )

AND MORE

a list of links to discussions (some video) that have taken place in national media outlets like ABC, CNN, HBO, etc....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Camp#Television_News_Reports_.26_Discussions

my the web can be overwhelming...but useful.

best

jon