Robin Hood: A hero for every age

Using film in Christian communication – part 2

In the first post in this series, I reflected on life in the mediasphere, and the influence which films can have on us. In this post, we begin to get into the subject of worldviews.

Film and worldviews

Photo by Andrew Bossi, Flickr; used under a Creative Commons licence www.flickr.com/photos/thisisbossi/4273347964/

While films tell [...]

Using film in Christian communication – part 1

Life in the mediasphere

Sean Penn’s wonderful film Into the Wild (2007) tells the true story of a young man who abandons normal middle class life, gives everything away and hitch-hikes to Alaska where he plans to live in the wilderness. He wants to be surrounded by a beautiful landscape, not a cityscape. Most [...]

Mark Kermode interviews Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman is an extraordinarily talented actor, as well as a theatre director for the last thirteen years. Now he’s turning his skills to directing a feature film for the first time with Jack Goes Boating, which is released in UK cinemas on 8 July. It looks like it’s going to be a [...]

The First Grader

The First Grader (Soda Pictures, 12A, UK release date: 24th June) is a heart-warming true story of Kimani N’gan’ga Maruge, an octogenarian Kenyan man who exercised his right to an education and battled bureaucracy to take his place at primary school. Set against the background of Maruge’s history as a Mau Mau rebel, The First Grader [...]

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2011

The Wonderful online video site mubi.com is making available for free three of the documentaries screening at the Sheffield documentary film festival this week. It’s worth signing up to Mubi just for this! Details below, taken from the Mubi site:

“No longer critically marginalized as of lesser importance than the fiction [...]

Why We Love Men in Capes

My friend Mark Meynell is a great film fan, an enthusiast for superheroes and an excellent communicator. So I’m excited to see his new venture – an audio documentary about the significance of superheroes. It’s 30 minutes long and is at the bargain price of £1.29 on iTunes (see below). I’ve not yet had [...]

The Way – free resources from Damaris

Emilio Estevez’s film, The Way, starring his father Martin Sheen and himself. As a committed Catholic whose family comes from the Galicia region of Spain where the film is set, this was a very personal project for Sheen. It’s thoughtful and emotionally engaging, and raises plenty of issues to discuss. Empire magazine gives [...]

The truth will set you free

A conversation this morning made me realise I’d never posted this article here, which is why it’s appearing some time after the film. This article was first published on Culturewatch.

Beware: spoilers ahoy!

One of the many changes which the Internet has brought into our lives is that it is remarkably easy to [...]

Russell Brand on death and significance

Fascinating extract fromt Jeremy Paxman’s interview with Russell Brand:

I came across this on Barry Cooper’s website where he makes an interesting connection with Jonathan Edwards. He also highlights this particularly interesting quote:

“Someone told me once that all desire is the desire to be at one with God in substitute form. So [...]

The King’s Speech – Encouraging Words

The King’s Speech is bookended by two speeches. The first is a disaster, a deeply humiliating experience for Prince Albert, Duke of York (Colin Firth), because of a severe stammer which had afflicted him since early childhood. He gives this speech on behalf of his father, King [...]

Robin Hood: A hero for every age

This article was first published in Idea magazine (May/June 2010) and on Culturewatch.org. © Tony Watkins, 2010. The legend of Robin Hood has an enduring fascination, and not just for small boys with bows and arrows. For over seven centuries, he has been an icon of struggle against unjust authority and of defending the [...]