Sanctuary

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Film Info:   “Sanctuary” ( 1983) – PBS Frontline – 60 minutes

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

Summary:  Examines the 1980s Sanctuary Movement, which engaged in civil disobedience to Immigration Service regulations by giving assistance to refugees from political oppression in Central America.

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 Shrine

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Film Info:  “The Shrine” (1989) – 46 minutes

Distributor:  ???????????

Summary:  Depicts the Holy Week pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico; very useful for appreciation of folk religion, the time-space structure of pilgrimages, and the importance of sacred place both in America’s Hispanic and Indian cultural heritages.

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

Shrine Under Siege

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Film Info: “Shrine under Siege” (1985) – 42 minutes

Distributor: Icarus Films

Summary:  SHRINE UNDER SIEGE describes the coalition formed by Fundamentalist U.S. Christians and militant Israeli Jews to destroy the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third holiest shrine, and to build a new Jewish temple in its place. The documentary explores the theological background to this unusual coalition and places it within the context of the increased political power of fundamentalism in the U.S., and the rise of extremist religious parties in Israel, as demonstrated by the election of Rabbi Meir Kahane to Parliament

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

Solidaridad: Faith, Hope, and Haven

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Film Info:  “Solidaridad: Faith, Hope, and Haven” (1989) – 57 minutes

Distributor:  ??????????

Summary:   A documentary about the work of the Vicaria de la Solidaridad, a Catholic organization in Chile that has provided support for victims of human rights abuses.

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

Thank God and the Revolution

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Film Info:   “Thank God and the Revolution” (1981) – 57 minutes

Distributor:  ???????????? (formerly Icarus Films, but it’s not in their current catalog)

Summary:  Outstanding illustration of many theories about the role of religion in social change in Nicaragua.  It includes Liberation Theology, base Christian communities, a brief historical background, and interviews with people from all strata of society – rural villagers to cabinet officials.  The folk hymns in the soundtrack are moving.

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

Triumph of the Will

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Film Info: “Triumph of the Will” (1936) – Leni Riefenstahl – 120 minutes

Distributor: Blockbuster Video

Summary: Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) is a filmed record of the 1934 Nazi Party Convention, in Nuremberg. No, it is more than just a record: it is an exultation of Adolf Hitler, who from the moment his plane descends from Valhalla-like clouds is visually characterized as a God on Earth. The “Jewish question” is disposed of with a few fleeting closeups; filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl prefers to concentrate on cheering crowds, precision marching, military bands, and Hitler’s climactic speech, all orchestrated, choreographed and illuminated on a scale that makes Griffith and DeMille look like poverty-row directors. It has been alleged that the climactic rally, “spontaneous” Sieg-Heils and all, was pre-planned according to Riefenstahl’s specifications, the better to take full advantage of its cinematic potential. Allegedly, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels resented the presence and intrusion of a woman director, but finally had to admit that her images, achieved through the use of 30 cameras and 120 assistants, were worth a thousand speeches. Possibly the most powerful propaganda film ever made, Triumph of the Will is also, in retrospect, one of the most horrifying. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two Black Churches

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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

Separate Realities

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Film Info: “Separate Realities” (1979) – Part of the”Profiles of Rural Religion” series produced by P.J. O’Connell for the Rural Documentary Project and Penn State Broadcasting – 58 minutes

Distributor:   Pennsylvania State University Media Sales DVD – $25

Summary: Suzie Anderson attends St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lock Haven, PA. Glenn Stover attends First Baptist, just across a 25-foot alleyway. But their religious beliefs and practices are separated by a far greater distance. Suzie is a “seeker”; she is exploring her religious commitment, asking questions, questioning the answers. Glenn is “born again.” There are no questions in his settled and serene religious faith. This film develops the religious viewpoints of two very different–but strongly committed–individuals and offers the opportunity to compare these two variations on the ages-old question of “proper” religious behavior.

Out of Order

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Film Info: “ Out of Order”, by Dian Christian and Bruce Jackson, color, 89 minutes, 1983

Distributor:  Documentary Educational Resources (DER) – www.der.org

Summary:  In “Out of Order”, six former Catholic nuns tell why they entered and why they left religious life.  They talk about single life and marriage, the changed place of religion in their lives, sex roles, institutional supports and burdens, and work.  The film offers unique insight into female socialization and identity in modern America by probing ideals and realities of womanhood, sex, work, and service from an unknown an unusual perspective.  (From the distributor’s blurb.)