Mission Leader

Missionary Films
“Li Yang”
Missionaries working in China’s underground church – 6 feature films
deidox.com

“The Last Letter”
Missionaries working in Burma, Nairobi and Memphis – six short films
thelastletter.org

“Hearing Everett”
A missionary family educates deaf children in Mexico
hearingeverett.com

“The Prosperity Gospel”
A look at the “prosperity Gospel” at work in Ghana
vimeo.com/7196941

“Kavi”
One boy’s escape from bonded labor in an Indian brick kiln
kavithemovie.com

“As We Forgive”
An examination of the possibility of forgiveness in postgenocide Rwanda
asweforgivemovie.com

ST. LOUIS — Three hundred evangelical Christian college students sat in a dark, packed downtown hotel ballroom Monday, the projected glow of a movie the only source of light.

At least that’s the way it looked to an observer. The students in the room would have argued that the real sources of light were the movies’ subjects: missionaries bringing the Gospel to what they believe to be the darkest corners of the world for Christians — China, Burma, India, Africa.

In watching examples of such films, these missionaries-to-be were participating in an artistic renaissance of sorts within the Christian community. The potential of narrative filmmaking as an evangelical tool has grown rapidly in recent years, as the technical tools used to make movies have become cheaper and available to more, and younger, people.

“Film is ingrained into our culture, and Christians are using it more and more for God’s kingdom’s purposes,” said Drew Mason, a 19-year-old sophomore film major from San Diego State University who attended the film screening.

That screening was part of last week’s “Urbana ’09” conference, the largest gathering of mission agencies in the world. Its purpose is to connect more than 16,000 young, idealistic, energetic students with the 280 mission organizations and seminaries that staffed booths for the five-day event at the America’s Center.

Urbana is organized by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA every three years to take advantage of the typical four-year college cycle. The conference moved to St. Louis in 2006 after nearly 60 years on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

But this was the first year that Urbana organizers decided to tap into the younger generation’s interest in film in a big way.

“At Urbana ’03, there wasn’t a peep about film or filmmaking, and in ’06 there were two discussions that brought in about 50 people,” said Nathan Clarke, 34, a documentary filmmaker with Fourth Line Films who organized this year’s Urbana Film Festival and Forum.

This year, organizers devoted three formal sessions to the subject, screening six films. The festival drew more than 1,000 students to the sessions, and also to smaller workshops, round tables, lectures and one-on-one meetings in which students could get critiques on their film pitches.

“Today there’s a community of Christian filmmakers out there who have access to the technical tools, but many of whom need to learn how to tell a story,” Clarke said.

Probably the most popular evangelical film ever made, known as the “JESUS” film, was produced 30 years ago by Bill Bright, co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International. The two-hour movie features the familiar story of Jesus’ life as told in the Gospel of Luke, and according to its website, has been translated into 1,000 languages and has been seen by 6 billion people.

But younger filmmakers are turning away from using their craft as an element of the conversion process itself. Instead, they are taking the skills they’ve learned in film schools and using both documentary and fictional narrative techniques to change the direction in which their movies find an audience.

Rather than making a movie that shows the story of Jesus to a Third World nonbeliever, as the makers of the “JESUS” film did, today’s Christian filmmaker might target an American audience and dramatize the dangers for those leading the underground church in China, or examining the role of the prosperity Gospel in Ghana.

Christian movie director T.C. Johnstone, 36, screened part of his movie “Hearing Everett” at the Urbana film forum last week, and explained to the audience afterward that the movie’s genesis was as a promotional video for Rancho Sordo Mudo, a home and school for deaf children in Mexico.

But what began as a simple fundraising tool eventually became a feature-length telling of the story-behind-the-story — part documentary, part narrative history — of how an American missionary family left the comforts of home and began teaching deaf children in the Mexican desert.

Churches are the intended venue for free “Hearing Everett” screenings (it’s also available for individuals to buy online) after which members may take up a collection for Rancho Sordo Mudo.

But for Johnstone and, increasingly, other Christian filmmakers, the screening itself isn’t the end of the movie experience. “Hearing Everett” ends with an “action step” directed at the viewer. Pastors who choose to can request a “tool kit” that includes a “small group study guide” that Johnstone hopes will lead others toward church service projects.

Other Christian filmmakers have become activists for social justice issues that both make good sources of drama, and mesh with the tenets of their faith. They are unsatisfied just telling a story of injustice and letting an audience decided how to act. For many, their faith propels them to set up nonprofit organizations.

“There’s a level of responsibility,” said Clarke. “If I’m just putting a movie out there, am I really answering the call?”

Like Johnstone, Gregg Helvey did not rest after the final edit of his 19-minute film, “Kavi,” that was screened at the Urbana film forum. The film is a fictional narrative about a boy who is forced to work as a slave in an Indian brick kiln.

Helvey, 30, made “Kavi” as his thesis film at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. In an interview, he said he is exploring partnerships with anti-slavery organizations to ensure the message of “Kavi” lives after the theater lights come up.

Last month, “Kavi” was short-listed by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for an Oscar in the “live-action short films” category. From that list, three to five films will be nominated for the Oscar.

Helvey’s goal, he said, was “to do something more than tell a story, but to raise awareness, leave the world a better place and play a small part in giving voice to the voiceless.” In partnering with anti-slavery organizations, “Kavi” “can lead to action by channeling audience members to the anti-slavery organizations that are actually fighting this,” Helvey said.

Urbana students also learned of an emerging group of Hollywood production companies such as Walden Media, which made the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, that specialize in family and often Christian movies.

Kurt Tuffendsam, 30, a Christian producer who has worked on mainstream Hollywood fare such as “The Job” and “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans,” told the students in one session that production companies like MPower Pictures have successfully figured out “how to represent Christ to the mainstream.”

MPower Chief Executive Steve McVeety produced the Mel Gibson blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ.” MPower’s “As We Forgive,” a documentary about reconciliation between victims and perpetrators in postgenocide Rwanda, was screened at the Urbana film forum.

John Shepherd, president of MPower and producer of last year’s controversial “The Stoning of Saroya M.,” said a new generation of Christians is embracing the arts in a way their parents never did.

“If the body of Christ doesn’t get involved in film as a mission field, it’s missing a phenomenal opportunity to have their message heard by the world,” Shepherd said. “And this young generation gets it. The church had abandoned the arts, but young people are taking it back.”

At one of Urbana’s film forum sessions, director T.C. Johnstone spoke directly to his young audience about their potential as both Christians and filmmakers.

“What has God placed in your hands to work through you?” he asked them, then answered his own question: “It’s a camera.”