Request on behalf of Mountain View Children's Project (http://mvcp.org)

Merry Christmas!

I don't like to add one more request for your charity on top of the
many I've sure you've already received this Christmas. But I strongly
believe in the work of Mountain View Children's Project as I have been
part of it since it began! MVCP works in one region of the world:
Karima, Kenya. Our mission is to provide for the AIDS orphans in
Karima so that they can grow up into strong and self-sufficient
Christian adults. ("AIDS orphan" means that their parents died as a
result of HIV/AIDS; the orphans themselves don't necessarily have HIV,
and in fact most of them don't.)

You can find out all about our ministry at our website, http://mvcp.org.

This Christmas, please considering purchasing a female goat, just $35,
which will be given to one of the 156 orphans (and their guardians,
which are usually their grandmothers) of Karima, Kenya, who were too
old to be included in Compassion International's Karima African Inland
Church child sponsorship project. These orphans receive no other aid
besides what they receive through MVCP. (This puts a lot of pressure
on us to find ways to help them!) We're proud of our idea to provide
each of these orphans a female goat, instead of food rations. Food is
eaten and is gone, but female goats will produce more goats as well as
milk. My sister Jenna, who is also part of MVCP and who is going to
Michigan State's Vet School, raised money for MVCP this summer by
hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail. With part of this money,
Jenna arranged with the Christian Veterinary Mission to provide the
people of Karima nine books that describe in simple terms how to care
for goats. Armed with these books, the orphans and their guardians
will be able to properly care for their goats, ensuring that your $35
will make a difference that will last and last.

You can buy a gift in your own name or in honor of someone else.
Instead of buying your friend or loved one a gift that will break or
rust, consider buying a goat in their honor! That is a gift that will
last and last, with repercussions in this life and the next.

As of this writing, people have purchased goats for 87/156 orphans.
If you would like to buy a goat, either in your name or in honor of
someone else, please make a check payable for $35 to Vital
Connections, our partner organization. If you want to purchase a goat
in someone else's name, please send that person's name and their
address or e-mail address, and we will send them a certificate stating
that you purchased a goat in their honor.

You can send your check to:
Vital Connections
c/o Phil Glewen
1434 Katrina SE
Kentwood, MI 49508

You can also donate directly to our cause on Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/144757

If you are unable to help us at this time, please spread the word of
our Goats for Christmas campaign to your neighbors, friends, and
family. And again, Merry Christmas!

Jon Den Houter
Vice-president of MVCP
http://mvcp.org

U23D (2008)

U23D (Owens, Pellington 2007) is the brainchild of an amazing group of photographers based in LA called 3ality. From what I read on Wikipedia, they are the sons of Art Modell, some dude who owned a NFL team. They decided to create an inexpensive way to shoot NFL games in a stereo format, and came up with their new process. Since the filming process was designed primarily with live events in mind, attempting to capture the energy of a live concert was a natural fit.

The film succeeds on many levels, but, due to the subject material and presentation style, it never really moves from escapist spectacle to art. Bono, the self-proclaimed savior of all manor of downtrodden peoples chose an Argentinian audience to the be subject of the film, as they are the closest to the energy he found in Ireland, and, presumable, the easiest for him to whip into a quasi-political furor. Never one to miss a chance to use a stage as a soap-box, he spends more time screaming for world peace, and (I'm not kidding) donning a headband that he had apparently drawn various religious symbols on with a magic marker, than he does just performing his music. Bono! It's pop music! Get some perspective.

The majority of the film is shot in a very straight-forward style; consisting primarily of cuts. During a few of the band's more experimental songs, the directors chose to include some overlays, and even some computer generated effects in the film's climatic song. The editing is tight, and doesn't insult the audience by sticking to tempo-based montage editing (always cutting on a beat), and plays around with the sequences. This is a smart choice considering the frenetic content of the concert footage coupled with the "3D" stereo presentation might lead some of the more faint-of-heart to start bazooka barfing.

A review of a stereo film isn't complete without mentioning the presentation. The stereo effect really is surprisingly good. The theater I saw this in (the AMC in Times Square, NYC) had a really-well tuned system and used passive polarized glasses instead of the more expensive and light reducing "shutter lenses" some IMAX theaters use. The effect was compelling and really helped imerse the audience in the concert experience. The directors smartly didn't draw attention to the "3D" element of the film, choosing to concentrate on faithfully reproducing the feel of the concert. The only issues I saw with their technique was when the footage was shot with extremely wide angle lenses. When this happened, the eye separation came out of alignment at the edges of the picture and you could see ghosting.

The audio of the film was probably the most impressive feature. IMAX uses 6 muxxed audio channels that stream from a hard drive synchronized by a pulse track on the film (when digital projectors are used I have no idea) then, in the more high-end IMAX theaters, the 6 muxxed channels are run into a spacial imager that further alters and diverts the audio. The effect is a an amazingly true-to-life mix, with multiple sound stages. Another really smart creative decision was to shelf the instruments in a live performance style, instead of compressing and doing all kinds of studio trickery, again they stayed truthful to the event they were trying to capture.

All in all, it's worth a viewing. Since most of us don't have IMAX theaters in our homes, I imagine the only way someone will see it as it was intended is to catch it in the theater before it's gone. However, if we all did have some way of playing it back in the comfort and considerably cheaper option of our home, I would easily say it's a renter.

The Future Of Food

Jon, First off, I would like to thank you for your love of movies and for inviting me to post on your site! Second, I'd like to point out, not that you won't be able to tell, I'm not the most elegant writer/reviewer. My memory is bad about details, so I’ll probably be the guy that tells you how it made me feel, or how it convicted me more than a formal review of events that went on in the film. Never the less, here goes!

The Future of Food convicted me on all fronts. The movie basically starts out on the idea that food has been genetically changed... wait a minute...listen… I'm not going to give details… I'm just not good enough to do that. Here's what I can say...the company that makes Roundup (Monsanto) has cornered the market on weed killer and seeds for crops. They have genetically engineered seeds that prevent Roundup from killing the plants. With that said they have patented their seeds. And farmers have to buy licensing to use their seeds. The company strictly enforces their patent and product by having people out on the fields all across the US checking to make sure farmers are using their own seed, or have license to use their seed. The problem with that is, seeds get pollinated by nature... so if Joe the farmer across the street is using a Roundup company seed and it blows over the street and starts growing in my field, I can get sued... and they do sue... I believe they said they have sued 9000 farmers in the United States for not having their license to grow their seed.

The Second part of the movie goes into how seeds, insects and animals are genetically engineered and it is a SCARY process. They invade cells with viruses like e coli and other stuff, then basically morph genes together to make a product. None of this stuff has been tested long term. There are so many unknowns, but we're eating it on a daily basis. My theory has LONG been that we are getting sicker and sicker from allergies from what we are doing to the environment and this includes crops and livestock. The FDA has been ordered, it says in the movie to pretty much stay out of the business of regulating these genetically modified crops.

Anyway, the thing about this movie is: it is a MUST see... I don't think we can go on like this, we’re ruining whole cultures... and the best way we can protest is to start buying organically grown from local farmers or super markets. Take away the demand for this cheater way of growing crops and ruining whole species of plants.

Darin Christian

Ben-Hur (1959)

MGM's 11-Academy-Award-Winning Ben-Hur (1959) is actually a remake of the silent film, Ben-Hur (1925), also produced by MGM Studios. Both of these movies are based Lew Wallace's historical novel by the same name, which was first published in 1880. According to the novel's introduction in Oxford World's Classics, "[Ben-Hur] was a phenomenal best-seller; it soon surpassed Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) as the best-selling American novel and retained this distinction until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind" (vii).

The story of how the novel came to be is amazing in itself, but our focus here is the 1959 film portrayal of Ben-Hur. The Hollywood epics of the 1950s and 1960s, like Ben-Hur, Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Spartacus, were a golden age of historic, epic films. Wide screen, vivid technicolor, gorgeous costuming, orchestral scores, and the creme de la creme of the day's actors--these are what made these Hollywood epics great, and why people like me are still watching them today.

But the significance of Ben-Hur for me is not its epic qualities, but rather is heartfelt, profoundly human story. (I feel the same way about Dr. Zhivago--I will have to write a review on that film as well.) I particularly liked the interaction between Jesus, whose face is never shown on screen, with Ben-Hur. As the story of Jesus as told in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) unfolds in the background, the main action traces Ben-Hur's story.

Ben-Hur's friendship with Messala, a high-ranking Roman Official who put in charge of Ben-Hur's Judean homeland, ends bitterly when Ben-Hur refuses to help Messala "subdue" Judea. In vengenace, Messala seizes an opportunity to have Ben-Hur, his sister, and his mother arrested. Ben-Hur is sentenced to row in the galley; what's come of his mother and sister he does not know.

Here is Ben-Hur's first encounter with Jesus. As he walks, enchained, toward his future of slave labor in the galley, he is faint with thirst. When they arrive at a town, the Roman soldier allows the woman at the well to give drinks to the prisoners--except, "not that one." As Ben-Hur watches other prisoners drink, and feels his own tongue swelling and cracking from thirst, an unfamiliar man takes a cup of water and holds it up to Ben-Hur's lips. "I said, 'not that one!'" the soldier yells. But when the soldier walks over to stare down this unfamiliar man, he is stopped in the tracks. There's an authority about this man that he has never encountered before. The soldier walks away, his tail between his legs.

Through a propitious (and I would say providential) event, Ben-Hur gets on the good side of Roman general Quintus Arrius. A series of events puts Ben-Hur in the position to seek revenge against Messala. His long time love interest, Esther (played by a demure Haya Harareet), is horrified by Ben-Hur's quench for revenge and says to him, "You've become Messala."

Meanwhile, Jesus has given his famous "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew chs 5-7), and one of the wise men a la Matthew 2:1-12, depicted at the very beginning of the film, runs into Ben-Hur and tells him that Jesus preaches forgiveness. Intsead of seeking revenge against Messala, he encourages Ben-Hur to leave room for God's vengeance.

But Ben-Hur doesn't listen, and seeks to exact vengeance against Messala in the annual chariot race in Rome. In perhaps the most famous scene of the film, Ben-Hur avoids Messala's chariot, which is rigged with wheel-shredding spikes, and defeats him. In the process, Ben-Hur's chariot disrupts Messala's and causes Messala to crash, mortally wounding him. Ben-Hur has vengeance at last! But his soul is left unsatisfied.

The final scenes of the film portray Jesus' crucifixion at Golgotha ("the place of the skull" in Aramaic). Ben-Hur has brought his mother and sister, who had bocame diseased during their long prison confinment, to Jerusaelm in order to ask Jesus to heal them. It is too late. By the time they get there Jesus has been sentenced to death and is carrying the cross up to Golgotha. Ben-Hur sees Jesus' straining under the weight of the cross, and attempts to give him a drink of water; but Roman guards knock Ben-Hur out of the way. Jesus has to bear his suffering alone. As Jesus is crucified, something powerful is happening--the sky goes as dark as moonless night, thunder rumbles, and the earth is shook. Jesus' healing power is unleashed--for Ben-Hur's mother and sister, and for Ben-Hur's heart, which up to this point has been poisoned with hate for Messala. The film ends with a long shot of the empty crosses on Golgotha with a shepherd nearby, tending his sheep.

I guess this is more of a plot summary than a review! But this retelling of the plot highlights the skillful interaction of Ben-Hur's story with the story of Jesus. The way that the gospel of Jesus Christ (which, in a word, is "By his stripes we are healed," Isaiah 53:5) impacts Ben-Hur's life is illustrative for how the gospel impacts our lives today. Perhaps you, like Ben-Hur, have been given living water by Jesus Christ, and have been changed, such that you desire to give back.

Ray (2004)

Taylor Hackford took 15 years to make Ray, and it was worth the wait. Hackford waited long enough for Jamie Foxx to audition to play Ray Charles. When Hackford found out Jamie was the music director at his church and had played the piano since he was three, Hackford said, "Oh my God!" It was too perfect. And "perfect" is the word that comes to mind when you watch Jamie Foxx play Ray Charles.

Ray Charles himself trained Jamie how to play his songs with soul. Jamie worked hard to learn this style, and his hard work was rewarded: Ray gave Jamie, and the film, his blessing. Ray Charles died in 2004, the year the film was released.

There's a lot to praise about this film. What I really liked, however, was the portrayal of several storylines that illuminate truths of invisible universe. Truths like
1. Heroin will cripple you. When Ray first started using heroin, he owned heroin. After only a short time, though, heroin owned him. The film's portrayal of Ray's withdrawal from heroin is particularly well directed.
2. Adultery has consequences. Ray's marriage to his beloved Bee (played by Kerry Washington) was damaged and the intimacy weakened because of Ray's affairs with other women.
3. Christians can come off as very judgmental. The film portrays an incident from Ray's career when two bible-thumping Christians, presumably a husband and a wife, storm one of his concerts. They accuse him of corrupting the Lord's music (gospel music) with sexual lyrics and demand that he stop playing. When they've finished, Ray asked the crowd to say "Amen" if they want him to keep playing. The crowd resounds, "Amen!"
4. Redemption is not only possible, it is the way God works in this fallen world. Although his mother warned him not to let his blindness make him into a perpetual victim ("a cripple," his mother calls it), Ray had become a cripple in another way. But, at the end of the film, God finally gives Ray light--the light that Ray has been asking God for since God let him go blind at the age of nine--with a vision of his deceased mother. In this vision, Ray has his sight back (a symbolic detail not to be missed); and in it, Ray's mother helps him see how his heroin addiction has crippled him. Ray promises her he won't be crippled by heroin anymore--this is the turning point that leads Ray to check into St. Matthew's rehabilitation center. And though the process is brutal, Ray becomes free from that cruel slavemaster, heroin. Ray lived in this freedom for the rest of his life.

There are many other plotlines in this movie that, upon analysis, reveal life truths and lessons. For example, Ray's betrayal of his faithful friend Jeff Brown, and Jeff's consequential betrayal of Ray; Ray's amazing chutzpah that enables his rise to stardom, including helping him negotiate a better record deal than Sinatra's; and Ray's courage to admit to a young man protesting one of Ray's segregated concerts in Georgia, "You're right," which leads Ray to call off the concert. The Georgia protest is a storyline in itself with a redemptive finish in the Georgia congress.

I loved Ray. Even more, I love Ray Charles after watching this film! His story will continue to inspire for generations to come.

Jesus Camp (2006)

The documentary Jesus Camp is built around a debate between fundamentalist Christians and liberal Christians. On the fundamentalist Christian side is Becky Fischer, a Pentecostal Children's Minister. On the liberal Christian side is Mike Papantonio, host of the Ring of Fire radio show. The debate, in essence, is the role the church should play in the state. Becky Fischer is training a child army to make war against the godless aspects of American culture - for example, abortion. Mike Papatonio, on the other hand, maintains that though parents have the freedom to indoctrinate their children any way they want, the church should not try to conform the government to the fundamentalist Christian belief system.

Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady do a commendable job of remaining neutral. By the end you don't know whether they are more on the side of Becky Fischer or Mike Papatonio. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the film.

As a born again Christian myself, I found myself agreeing with much of the beliefs the fundamentalist Christians espoused in the film, such as the following:
1. God loves all persons and has dreams for each one;
2. The devil's first strategy against Christians is to get us to sin;
3. This is a messed up world;
4. Democracy is the best government in this messed up world, but the only perfect government will be the government ruled by Jesus Christ, the servant-master, when He comes again.

But while I found myself believing what Becky Fischer and her colleagues espoused in this film, I was distressed by their practice of their beliefs. I was uncomfortable with the speaking in tongues and the war-like interpretative dances. I was particularly uncomfortable with the children's experiences of being "slain in the [Holy] Spirit" - for example, falling to the ground in convulsions or breaking out with moans and effusive weeping. I cannot help but think most of these "slain in the Spirit" experiences are emotionally generated.

All in all, I'm grateful for Jesus Camp's even-handed presentation of these two sides - the beliefs of fundamentalist Christians vs. the beliefs of liberal Christians. I hope and pray that Christianity - a very real part of our world - will continue to be explored by documentary filmmakers.