Beginning this Sunday night, April 6, the youth group is meeting at the home of Joe and Cindy Pope to open the Spring International Short Film Festival. As usual, we will meet at 5:00 p.m. to mix, eat food (bring munchies to share), play games. Nathan will then show on the big screen one or two short films followed by discussion. The tentative schedule for films is…
April 6 “The Danish Poet,” and “Natalie: Alien Dinner Party”
April 20 “John” and “The Last Farm”
May 4 “My Mother Dreams the Satan’s Disciples in New York,” and “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers”
May 18 “The Death of Salvador Dali,” and “The Mantis Parable”
6 responses so far.
1 Rachel W. // Apr 7, 2008 at 12:49 am
Discussion tonight was great! Very thoughtful. I’m looking forward to the 20th!
2 Nathan // Apr 7, 2008 at 11:01 am
I agree. The Danish Poet helped us to distinguish not only between a world of “chance” vs. a world of “control,” but also we were able to divide world views which believe in control into “fatalism” and “providence.” Your input, Rachel, was key, but you were by no means a lone voice. Our group discusses any topic well and at a level that is impressively mature for the age range!
Natalie - The Alien Restaurant presented “selfishness” allowing us to get to the root problem with a life of amusing ourselves to death. I thought that we did more than simply discuss selfishness getting to the level of feeling the triteness of Natalie’s life and the wickedness of controlling other people’s lives for our sole benefit.
I didn’t plan the viewing of these two films together for the reason of juxtaposing their messages, but it happened! Think about it - The Danish Poet helped us to abandon a world randomly unfolding and to embrace a world of order and purpose. The Danish Poet sadly presents this world without a personal God in control, but it certainly allows for us to move toward that conclusion. Meanwhile, Natalie shows us how empty our lives are when we seek to personally control toward our personal gratification.
3 Joe Staub // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:59 am
Nathan,
I am sorry that I, we (Jesse and Me) are not involved in the film festival. Our lose. I have a facination with film analysis, which started with my high school Catholic education. My senior year religion class was almost entirely devoted to film analysis. I can remember that class as the most influential in my four year highschool experience.
Recently, I saw the movie, “No Country For Old Men.” It won the Academy Award for Best Picture and I just had to see it. Especially after everyone raved about the movie. As I watched the movie I was captivated by the expert cinamatography and the character development, but I kept waiting for the plot to develop or a “moral to the story” concept. When the movie was over one word came to mind, “Nihilism”. It seemed like a pointless, morally vacant, purposeless plot. Indeed, what plot! The Cohen brothers fall in with Quentin Tarantino and his bunch. They are great with cinamatography and capturing our depraved human nature, but when it comes to plot there is nothing to write home about. But of course, that is purposeful. They love showing off the seemingly “random” nature of human existence, as though we are just colliding atoms in space and time. It made me think about what you wrote above regarding the Danish poet. It seems to me that the popular facination with a random and nihilistic existence says something disturbing about the philosophical/spiritual trend of our society.
4 Nathan // Apr 15, 2008 at 9:28 pm
thanks for participating in our film festival, Joe! This series is but one tool we are using to prepare our teens for living in a world full of colliding views and lifestyles. I must say that I am deeply impressed with the thinking of the teens in our church.
5 Cris // Apr 30, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Professor Scott Oliphint recently presented a message at WTS chapel based on “No Country” and 1 Pet 1:13 that you might find interesting:
No Country .
Cris
6 Nathan // May 3, 2008 at 11:46 pm
thanks, Cris, I have downloaded it and will listen and make good use of it.
nathan.
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