July 27, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

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

Posted in War/Pacifism, Social Activism, African American Religion, Christianity, North America | Print | No Comments »

July 27, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: WGBH TV “Religion in America” series, 1974 – 28 minutes

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

Summary:  Brief documentary about Brooklyn’s Hassidic Jews.

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

Posted in Ethnic Identity, Judaism, Sects, North America | Print | No Comments »

July 27, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: Part of “The Long Search”, a 1977 BBC series hosted by Ronald Eyre – 52 minutes

Distributor: Ambrose Videos has the entire series on DVD for $99

Summary: What is it that makes a Jew a Jew? In New York, Elie Wiesel, author and survivor of the concentration camps, tries to define it. In London, Nobert Brainin and the Amadeus Quartet carry the argument further, both in words and music. Inevitably the search takes us to Jerusalem, where Dr. Pinchas Peli, tenth generation rabbi and fourth generation Jerusalemite, explains the meaning of prayer and acts as our guide through the religious schools, the synagogues and a museum for the survivors of the Holocaust. We also see Western (Wailing) Wall, a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people.

Posted in Ethics, Worship Style, Older Films, Judaism | Print | No Comments »

July 27, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: Part of “The Long Search”, a 1977 BBC series hosted by Ronald Eyre – 52 minutes

Distributor: Ambrose Videos has the entire series on DVD for $99

Summary: The Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe seem to be bound to the Communist states in essentially loveless marriages, except in Rumania. The Rumanian Orthodox Church is still seen as an important aspect of Rumania’s cultural heritage and ethnic identity. The Orthodox liturgy is one of the oldest and longest in Christendom, and the spirituality of the services intensified by the Byzantine splendor of the setting and the beauty of some of the most inspiring choral music to be heard in any church in the world.

Posted in Older Films, Worship Style, Politics, Eastern Orthodox, Christianity, Europe | Print | No Comments »

July 25, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: Part of “The Long Search”, a BBC series hosted by Ronald Eyre – 52 minutes

Distributor: Ambrose Videos  has the entire series on DVD for $99

Summary: Traces the Indian religious experience in two highly contrasting locations: the bustling city of Benares where millions come to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges, and the small village of Bhith Bhagwanpur, unvisited except by professional story tellers and itinerant priests. The film concentrates its attention on the Hindu approach to God. But which God? For there are 330 million of them.

Posted in Worship Style, Culture, Older Films, Hinduism, East and South Asia | Print | No Comments »

July 24, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

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

Distributor:  PBS

Summary: Depicts black churches in a Midwestern city, 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.

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

Posted in Social Activism, Congregations, Older Films, Ethnic Identity, African American Religion, Christianity, Mainline Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, Churches, Sects | Print | No Comments »

July 24, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: “ The Journey: From Faith to Action in Brazil”  — (1984) – 29 minutes

Distributor:  Icarus Films

Summary: Shows the action of Base Ecclesial Communities in a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro and includes interviews with the bishops of the area, as well as pastoral agents and residents.

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

Posted in Liberation Theology, Older Films, Social Activism, Christianity, Latin America & Caribbean | Print | No Comments »

July 24, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info:  The Hutterites – National Film Board of Canada (1964) – 28 minutes B/W

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

Summary:  Documentary (without shooting restrictions) of life in a Hutterite colony in Western Canada.  [See also the color documentary Hutterites, from the Canadian Broadcasting Company (1984), 59 minutes.]

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

Posted in Culture, Older Films, Christianity, Sects, North America | Print | No Comments »

July 24, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: Holy Terror – CGuild (1986) – 58 minutes

Distributor:  ??????????

Summary:  Portrays the religious legitimation of the New Right (esp anti-abortion) activism of the 1980s.

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

Posted in Older Films, New Christian Right, Conflict, Social Activism, Politics, Christianity | Print | No Comments »

July 24, 2011 by Jim Spickard.

Film Info: Flight of the Dove – (1989) – 29 minutes

Distributor: ?????????? (Formerly available from University of California Media, but that group is no longer.)

Summary:  Religion and ethnic identity among Portuguese-Americans in rural southern California.

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

Posted in Ethnic Identity, Older Films, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Christianity, North America | Print | No Comments »