Hohle Cinema & Religion: The Filmmaker’s Prayer 2019

• Author: Philip Hohle
• Year: 2019
• Publisher: Independent

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What is the filmmaker’s prayer?
Religion is the organized system of beliefs and assumptions that are strongly held by the adherent. Such a system helps one make sense of the world.
No filmmaker with blood in her veins can resist or avoid telling stories that promote truth as they know it. Consciously or unconsciously, all filmmakers have an ethical purpose in their work. All movies have a moral. In both obvious and subtle ways, filmmakers infuse their worldview into the story. If you think about it, the movie is the filmmaker’s prayer.
Has the celluloid suddenly become sacred?
In these pages, the reader will explore the values, assumptions, and beliefs represented in films that not only entertain but also those that that instruct and motivate—as well as those that bring either comfort or disruption to our world. Since the earliest days of the art, movies have always helped people make sense of the human condition. The way great films impact our lives certainly sounds a great deal like the intended role of a religion.
This book will:
Equip you to recognize a religious worldview in a film, providing useful tools for analysis on a less-conventional level.
Strengthen your appreciation for the power of film to help one escape the mundane and experience transcendence.
Help you identify the key religious themes commonly found in narratives and compare and contrast them with the basic tenets of major religions—especially Christianity.
Illustrate how an informed religious perspective can help you generate a fresh reinterpretation of movies that you found joyful or those that were emotionally disruptive.
Provide you with an enhanced way of making sense of the values, artifacts, and behaviors demonstrated by your favorite characters.
Demonstrate how the filmcraft in a movie serves to raise the filmmaker’s prayer.
Advance your emerging fluency and confidence as a viewer-critic, preparing you to respond to the exigence (the urgent issue) raised by the filmmaker.
Prepare you to add depth to the conversation about any film’s contribution to our culture’s grand narrative.