Black Delta Religion

Film Info: Black Delta Religion – Center for Southern Folklore, Memphis (1974) – 15 minutes, B/W

Distributor: ??????????

Summary: A brief but lively depiction of a wide range of Southern black religiosity, including ecstatic dance, singing, preaching styles, social-community context.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Keeping the Faith

Film Info:  “Keeping the Faith” – by Sherry Jones — PBS (Frontline series) (1987) – 58 minutes

Distributor:  PBS

Summary: Depicts two black churches in Chicago, with particular focus on one middle-class congregation and a secondary focus on a lower-class congregation.  Examines these congregations as sources of vitality, activism, community, and identity.

The larger congregation — Trinity United Church of Christ — is pastored by Jeremiah Wright, the man whom President Barrack Obama said brought him to Christ.  The film was shot nearly 20 years before the controversy over Wright’s political remarks before the 2008 election.  One gets a very good sense of Wright’s drive, his charisma, and his solid theological grounding.  It seems clear to me (JS) that the whole ‘controversy’ was a political hatchet job designed to turn White voters against Obama’s candidacy.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Martin Luther King: A Man of Peace

Film Info:   Journal Films (1968) – 26 minutes

Distributor:   ???????

Summary:  Shows portions of sermons, speeches, and interviews with Martin Luther King, Jr., linking his philosophy of non-violence with Biblical themes.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

The Performed Word

Film Info: “The Performed Word” (1982) – Center for Southern Folklore (Memphis) – 58 minutes

Distributor: ??????????

Summary:   Black religious styles in their cultural context –especially sermon, music, and preaching styles.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Two Black Churches

Film Info: “Two Black Churches” (n.d.) – Center for Southern Folklore (Memphis) – 21 minutes

Distributor: ??????????

Summary:  Images of black religious expression in two very different churches: one in rural Mississippi, the other in urban New Haven, Connecticut.  Includes inspired preaching, faith healing, glossolalia, ecstatic dance.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS