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A HISTORY AND OVERVIEW OF CHRISTIAN FILMS
The
one major element that has always lacked for the dramatic Christian film
industry is that there are virtually no Christian movie theaters. Without
a theatrical release, it is very hard to get a film known. Hollywood produces
a film, puts it in the theater, and this opens up every other door for
television, rental stores, and home viewing.
Since the beginning
of Christian films back in the 40's, the motion pictures were shot on 16mm
film and released mainly to churches. Churches would show films on Sunday
nights, for Sunday school, or during youth events. For decades, 16mm
films were the mainstay of Christian films.
No theater release
of a Christian film also meant no awareness. The only people who really
knew anything about Christian films were pastors and youth pastors since
they were the main people who received mailings about them. From the 1940's
to the early 90's, Christian films were distributed primarily through Christian
film libraries. These libraries would mail information about films to churches.
Churches would then rent films and show them to their particular groups.
Therefore, if a person wanted to see a Christian film, their only real
option was when a church had a film showing.
Some of the early pioneers
of Christian films were producers like Ken Anderson and distributors such
as Gospel Films. Harry Bristow started Christian Cinema, possibly the largest
Christian film library located outside Philadelphia in Ambler, PA. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
started producing movies with an evangelistic message in the 50's and did so for decades.
In the 1972, Mark IV
Pictures released A Thief in the Night which was a major landmark
for Christian films. One of the most widely seen Christian films of all
time, A Thief in the Night began a series of end times films that
Mark IV produced which included A Distant Thunder, Image of the Beast,
and The Prodigal Planet.
In 1980, the Lord raised
up a young filmmaker from California by the name of John Schmidt. Schmidt
produced a very popular youth film called Super Christian. Considered
one of the finest Christian filmmakers, Schmidt went on to release Kevin
Can Wait, The Greatest Story Never Told, The Wait of the World, and
Super Christian 2 in the 80's. All of his films were distributed by
Gospel Films. Schmidt also produced the convicting drama Guess Who's
Coming to America in 1992 and directed The Crossing in 1994.
One of the most widely
seen youth films of the 80's was Never Ashamed produced by Edward
T. McDougal. Released in 1984, Never Ashamed brought a realistic
story to youth groups around the globe. McDougal went on to produce three other films,
Gold Through the Fire, Geronimo, and The First Stone.
In 1986, twin brothers
Dave and Rich Christiano appeared on the scene with their first film The
Daylight Zone. Since that time, the two brothers have either co-produced
or individually produced eleven other films which include The Pretender,
Crime of the Age, The Appointment, Second Glance, Pamela's Prayer, End
of the Harvest, Late One Night, Time Changer, Unidentified, Me & You, Us, Forever and The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry.
A major evangelistic
impact film showed up in 1988 in the form of Mars Hill's Without Reservation.
A very contemporary film for its time, Without Reservation caught
the attention of many youth pastors who wanted to wake up indifferent youth!
The film was written and directed by Fred Carpenter, who two years later
released Future Tense, a significant film about the soon coming
of Christ.
The advent of
video in the 80's caught up with 16mm church film rentals in the early
90's. Due to several reasons, 16mm film rentals drastically declined so
much that by the early 90's film libraries simply went out of business
and most producers stopped making films.
The mid 90's proved
to be a real dry spell for Christian films. A new filmmaker, Danny Caralles,
who wrote the original story to Second Glance, produced his first
film, a hard hitting video drama called Final Exit in 1995. He has
since released three other films, The Gathering, Escape From Hell and Pilgrim's Progress: Journey to Heaven.
with both films having numerous special effects. Two
other strong films that came out in the mid 90's were The Crossing
and Invisible Enemies. Both films were stories by Bill Muir.
Kevin Downes, first seen as an actor in The Crossing,
has now become a producer with the highly successful end times movie, The Moment After
released in 1999. He has also produced Lay It Down, Six: The Mark Unleashed and The Moment After 2.
At the turn of the century, Alex Kendrick appeared on the scene in 2003 with his excellent story Flywheel. Three years later, Alex released the inspiring film, Facing the Giants to theaters nationwide and then followed that with Fireproof in 2008. Alex has teamed
up with Provident Films and Sony Pictures to help take Christian films to a much wider theatrical release, something that has been
very difficult to do for Christian filmmakers throughout the years.
In recent years, many Christian TV Networks have begun showing more Christian movies.
Also, some Christian
film festivals have been held in certain parts of the country. The
most famous one is in the Boston, MA area which was started in 1992 by
Tom Saab.
What does the future
hold for Christian films? There seems to be a revival of churches showing movies to their congregation
again, as was the mainstay of the industry for the first 50 years. Many churches now are equipped with
DVD projection. Also, Christian filmmakers continue to have their eyes set on putting
real Christian movies in the secular theaters. Time Changer was a
very strong, Christ centered movie to play in theaters when it initially released in October of 2002. Unidentified and Facing the Giants were released to theaters in 2006
while
Me & You, Us, Forever and Fireproof followed in 2008. Leading the way in 2009 for a Christ-centered film in theaters was The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry.
This website, ChristianFilms.com, is dedicated
to keeping you up to date with these films and filmmakers. Christian films
are important and still possibly the most powerful tool for impacting people
with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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