Pierced to the Heart

involves two groups of principles: Core foundational principles and principles for choosing and engaging with film.

Core principles for

is about engaging with film heart-first, intending to come away with our souls enriched and strengthened. It’s about film helping us becoming who we need to be. As we see real (and imaginary) life played out before us on the screen, we can see more clearly what life is like — both good life and bad — and what we see can enliven and change us, if we have the hearts for it. is founded on three groups of core principles:

• Heart. Our hearts define who we are, yet we may hide and cover our hearts, even from ourselves. Although we may, by brute force, conform our external actions to an external law, it is what our hearts truly love that tells how much we need to grow. Film takes us to new places and shows us more clearly what this life is like. In doing so, it can help us to see the state of our own hearts. Then, if we let it, film can have a heart level impact that moves us toward the best ways of loving the things that God loves. more…
• Beauty. We were created with hearts that long for beauty. We long for the comfort of love, the joy of life, the wonder of a colorful sunset, the beauty of grace and goodness. As film shows us life lived out, it has its impact by letting us vicariously experience beautiful moments that draw our hearts toward this longing — as well as ugly moments that repel our hearts and thereby propel us toward our longing. For film to play a part in us becoming who we need to be, we need a strong understanding of Beauty, its character, its source, and our longing for it. more…
• Love. The two greatest commandments are to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength and to love others as we love ourselves. In our pursuit of film — as in our lives as a whole — we should be oriented around these two. As we come to understand these two commandments, their definition of Beauty becomes the deepest longing of our hearts. Film, when based in our pursuit of love, becomes a place of enrichment and growth for ourselves and a place of relationship with those around us, including filmmakers. We come to love film as a gift from above. more…

Principles for choosing and engaging with film

Please don’t get me wrong…although to hear it described, can sound like it’s about detailed academic and theological analysis that would suck the life out of film, it is not. The idea is to develop a habit and a perspective where it becomes second nature to connect film to life. With , we enjoy film all the more because it becomes part of us engaging more deeply with life. With some films, we’ll simply enjoy the laughter and the escape. With others, we will want to spend more time thinking and analyzing. But always it will be about true life and goodness and beauty that enriches us and moves us toward who we need to be. With , there are three groups of principles for engaging with film:

• Dealing with ugly content. We should be concerned about ugly content in film: profanity, violence, drugs, sex, pride, mysogyny, greed, and many more. But then, if film dives deep into the issues of this life — as it should — it means that we will encounter ugly content in film. We need perspective for understanding the how and why and how much of ugly content in film. more…
• Choosing films to watch. Content issues are only part of what we should consider in choosing a film. Film can be a place for deepening relationships of love with all those around us. We need the support of a community as we engage with films that wrestle with tough issues. We need to understand how we as individuals relate to the broader culture around us in the films we choose to see. more…
• Watching and engaging with a film. Once we’ve made our choice, the question becomes how we watch the film and what we take away from it. Are we watching the film simply for our own pleasure and nothing more? Do we think that, in watching a movie (or doing anything else), we’ve ceased to be living in and open to the presence of God? If a film is to impact our lives, if the Spirit might speak through the film, we have to explore what the film itself doing. How can we get outside ourselves — beyond our own prejudices, desires, and fantasy worlds — to be enriched, enlivened, and strengthened through the film? more…