City of Angels Film Festival offers audience dialogues in film and theology.
By Ma ya Minwary
Assistant A&E Editor
In an era where violence, sex and profanity are common in movies, it’s rare that people can still find a spiritual message underlying such films despite the crude surface.
Last weekend, more than 1,000 students, faculty, nuns, theologians and movie lovers flocked to the Director’s Guild of America Theater in Hollywood for the 10th Annual City of the Angels Film Festival.
“The City of the Angels Film Festival hopes to inspire an ongoing conversation about the art of cinema, the concerns of our city, and the heart of God,” festival producer Craig Detweiler said.
Central to the CAFF are the panel discussions after each screening. Not only did spectators get the rare chance to see documentaries, classical films, old dramas and musicals on the big screen at the Directors Guild of America Theater, but the festival also encouraged audience members to stay for the special discussion regarding the movie and theology after each screening.
“The panel discussions are intended to spark conversations within the audience,” Detweiler said. “It is a rare chance to grapple with the meaning of movies in a public forum. Films are a communal art form, so it is appropriate that we process and respond to each film as a community.”
Indeed, the panel discussion sparked a dialogue within the audience. While such clean cut films as “Star Wars” and “Snow White” sparked a discussion about how these movies touched people’s lives, more edgy and provocative films such as “Pulp Fiction,” and even “Moulin Rouge!” enticed the viewers into a debate. After the screening of “Moulin Rouge!,” for example, one woman stood up to ask if the main characters, Christian and Satine, were really in love or if their feelings were simply infatuation, which started a lively discussion about the topic of love in the movie.
But the purpose of CAFF is not solely to stir a controversy. According to Dr. Michael Gose, Blanche E. Seaver Professor of Humanities and Teacher Education, who has been part of the festival committee for the past two years, even if there are a wide variety of opinions regarding such racy films as “Pulp Fiction,” it’s the dialogue among the viewers the festival hopes to ignite.
“We appreciate controversy that leads to significant discussion,” Gose said. “Clearly ‘Pulp Fiction’ hit a nerve with a particular viewing public. The task of the film festival is to try to understand that. One needs to be ‘in the world’ even if not ‘of the world.’”
Among the audience members who participated in the panel discussion after each screening were Pepperdine students and professors. In its 10th year, CAFF has not only created thoughtful discussions among its spectators, but it has kindeled a fascinatin in film among some of Pepperdine professors as well.
“I first attended three years ago,” Gose said. “I felt a strong sense of identity with this volunteer group of Christians who were creating dialogue about religion and film and felt it was a great fit for Pepperdine, a Christian University situated in the middle of so many involved in the film industry.”
The high interest among Pepperdine professors also lead to the creation of several film classes. Religion professor Dr. Carl Flynn and Provost Dr. Darryl Tippens offer a class on the Social Science Perspective on Films, which uses the film festival as the class’s central “text,” Flynn said.
“Our motivation for offering the course has been to continue to spark a deeper dialogue in our academic community about film,” Flynn said.
Starting a dialogue about film and theology is what led to the creation of CAFF in the first place, said festival chair and co-founder the Rev. Scott Young. After the Rodney King verdict, the L.A. riots and amid the social upheavals of the early 1990s, a group of filmmakers and cinematically informed theologians thought movies could serve as conversation starters and a common ground to encourage discourse and healing, Detweiler said.
“The festival was created, in part, as a gift from spiritually sensitive filmmakers and cinematically informed theologians to help revitalized this great city,” Young stated in a festival booklet. “Responding also to Cardinal Roger Mahony’s stirring pastoral letter to filmmakers and moviegoers to listen and to learn from each other, the coalition behind the CAFF emerged with a specific mission: to identify and showcase movies that prove the ambiguities of human life.”
The specific mission of CAFF is also reflected in the festival’s theme each year. This year’s theme, “Revelations and Revolutions,” displays “The first century of cinema, (which) was a bumpy, exhilarating, wild ride in which the urgent cries of the human family found an intoxicating new outlet,” the festival pamphlet stated. The CAFF board also purposely structured each movie shown from the first, D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance,” to the last, “Moulin Rouge!” to echo “Revelations and Revolutions.”
“The festival schedule always has an intentional shape (and) we want to take our audiences on a cinematic journey,” Detweiler said. “That journey could be chronological (from ‘Intolerance’ in 1916 to ‘Moulin Rouge!’ in 2001) or it could be emotional and spiritual (from humanity’s historical cruelty and intolerance to a new century devoted to truth, beauty, courage and love).”
“‘Intolerance’ served a big, spectacular starting place, a call to attention. ‘The Graduate’ has elements of reflection and confession. ‘Pulp Fiction’ served as the challenging midpoint, a potent confrontation with a truth. ‘Moulin Rouge!’ served as an inspiring, uplifting benediction,” Detweiler continued.
As for the CAFF’s yearly theme, according to Detweiler, two years ago, when the committee was troubled by the case of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing, they wanted to focus on the problems of evil. The CAFF committee came up with “Touches of Evil,” ironically eight months before Sept. 11.
“When the festival arrived in October, everyone had definitely had questions about evil and horror on their mind,” Detweiler said.
While perhaps no one could’ve imagined secular film and theology could mix together, the thousands of spectators attending CAFF each year show that the two seemingly opposing topics are on a lot of people’s mind.
“The fest proved so effective and successful that we’ve just completed our 10th annual edition,” Detweiler said. “Nobody dreamed it would become this big and this impactful (sic), but I think God has great hopes for cinemas and our city.”
October 30, 2003