Summer is one of my favourite times of the year. Long evenings. Barbeques. Holidays and a good book. It’s a time to be with people without a meeting agenda getting in the way.
I also love the summer because I’m a bit of a film-buff and summer is the time for the summer blockbuster! This summer we’ve been treated to to Star Trek 3, Ghostbusters and another outing for Jason Bourne. Under the blockbuster radar, look out for John Lee Hancock’s “The Founder.” A biopic about the McDonalds Franchise.
Stories are powerful things. Some people think motion pictures are merely entertainment, but that’s a fallacy. Anything that brings you to tears or evokes strong feelings is doing much more than merely entertaining us.
“Hollywood is the foremost educational institution on earth.”Carl Sandberg (Former US Poet Laureate)
The best picture award this year went to the brilliant ‘Spotlight.’ A real-life account of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. Hollywood has a significant voice and a significant influence on our attitudes towards race, gender, sexuality and a whole host of other ‘human’ issues.
Our fascination with movies and the stories they tell has its origins in something deep within us. The search for justice. Striving for something better. Overcoming obstacles. Examining brokenness. Finding redemption. Above all these themes lies the ghost of Eden and a longing for something we have lost but cannot quite put into words. So movies do it for us. They help us articulate our dissatisfaction with what is, and our hopes for what could be.
On Friday September 16th, Godstone Baptist will be starting a monthly community cinema. It will be a great opportunity to create community and let the power of story weave it’s magic once again on our souls. Watch out for details in the coming months.
There is an old film called “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” It’s a great title because I think it’s true. It attempted to tell the story of Jesus. A story that does not spring from the pen of a Hollywood screenwriter, but one that nevertheless speaks to our unconscious desires and our hope for a better world and even a better ‘me’. This too is a story of what is wrong with the world, and of what could be. The good news is that it is not fiction, but fact.
