FILM AND VALUES
Jordi Sànchez Torrents
and Alba Sabaté Gauxachs (eds.)
School of Communication and International Relations Blanquerna
Universitat Ramon Llull
Barcelona, 2017
With collaboration from:
Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations
Facultat de Comunicació i Relacions Internacionals Blanquerna
Plaça Joan Coromines s/n. Barcelona 08001
Tel. +34 93 253 31 08. http://blanquerna.edu/fcc
First edition: October 2017
Edition Copyright: Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations at Ramon Llull University
ISBN: 978-84-947556-2-0
Legal Deposit: B-23.855-2017
Table of Contents / Índex
FILM AND VALUES
Notes on the Contributors
Preface: International seminar on film and values
Spiritual and religious cinema: symbols and metaphors in the Re-enchanted Era
Religion and Art
The universal dimension of religiously themed films. The Farel Prize: an original experience
SIGNIS and the juries’ work in professional film festivals
Going for 20. The Religion Today Film Festival
World of images / images of the world: films reflecting (social) reality the Church and Cinema Film Festival in Recklinghausen
Values transmitted through movies
Our urgent work: sustaining the vitality and relevance of spiritual film festivals
A space for reflection and dialogue
SIGNIS and its presence in international film festivals. A culture of dialogue & peace
Final remarks: the influence of the transcendental style in films
Film and values festivals catalogue
Egyptian Catholic Center Cinema Festival
Prix Farel
The European Television Festival of Religious Programmes
Tertio Millennio Film Fest
Religion Today Film Festival
Dhaka International Film Festival
Common Good International Film Festival
Church and cinema film festival Recklinghausen
Mostra de Cinema Espiritual de Catalunya
Festival Internacional de Cine con Valores. Tercer milenio
The Fajr Festival on Spirituality Cinema Section
Insight Film Festival
John Paul II Interfaith International Film Festival
Festival de Espiritualidad en el Cine Venezolano
Mirabile dictu. International catholic film festival
International Film Festival for Spirituality, Religion and Visionary
Fresco International Film Festival
Arfecine. International Festival of Religious Cinema
Danial, Fr. Botros. He is the director of the Egyptian Catholic Center for the Cinema Monk and a priest as per the Franciscan order in Egypt. He was born on February 1st, 1967 in Alexandria, and holds a BS in Theological and Philosophical sciences (1994) and a Master’s degree in media from University of Salisian in Rome (1998). He has held many responsibilities such as: conducting and playing piano for St. Joseph’s choir from 1990 to present, undersecretary of the Egyptian Catholic Center for the Cinema from 1999 to 2010, Manager of the Nile Hall for the Franciscan order from 2007 to present, and Director of the Egyptian Catholic Center for the Cinema from 2010 to present. <bot_music@yahoo.it>
De Vita, Pablo. He holds a degree in Sound and Image Design from the UBA, postgraduate degree in Cultural, Heritage, and Sustainable Tourism Management (Instituto Ortega y Gasset, Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and received a scholarship in Slavic Studies at Charles University (Prague). He is a contributor to the newspaper La Nación, in the magazines Debate, Criterio, y Todo es Historia, and for the southern edition of the magazine Vida Nueva. He held an internship with the newspaper La Repubblica (Rome) and has been published in specialized media in Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Poland. He has served as a jury member and covered international festivals. <pablodevitaprensa@yahoo.com>
Kleinschmidt, Michael M. He studied religion and media education. Since 2001 he has managed many German film educational projects (e.g. Cinema against Violence, Cinema for Tolerance, National School Film Weeks) and authored film study guides for the IKF - Institute for Cinema and Film Culture (www.film-kultur.de). Since 2010, he has co-directed the Church and Cinema Film Festival in Recklinghausen, Germany (together with Horst Walther). <kleinschmidt@kirchliches-filmfestival.de>
Kocher, Michel. He is a journalist, theologian and pastor and the director of Mediaspro (Department of Media, Reformed Churches of Francophone Switzerland). Kocher’s research interests and activities include work on tradition, orality, and the place of new media in religious transmission. He develops a software analysing communication called ContactGPS. An edition of this program in the field of New Testament studies won a price in 2014: 4 sports - 4 gospels. Several other editions have been developed with partners like WACC, the World Council of Churches. He is currently involved in various programs with Radio Television Suisse as resource person in religious fields. <michel.kocher@mediaspro.ch>
Malik, Abdul-Rehman. He is an award winning journalist, educator and creative consultant. Director of the Insight Film Festival - a festival that explores the intersection between faith and film. He is Programmes Manager for Radical Middle Way, an organisation that enables positive social change, promotes social justice, and combats exclusion and violence. Abdul-Rehman presents radio programs and documentaries for the BBC and works on projects that build cultural capital and cultural leadership. <director@insightfestival.com>
Sabaté Gauxachs, Alba. Journalist. PhD Scholar at the Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations (Ramon Llull University, Barcelona), working on a thesis on literary and digital journalism. Researcher at Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture. Coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Journalism and International Relations at the above mentioned School. She served as coordinator at m4social.org project, developed by Barcelona’s City Council, Mobile World Capital Foundation and Taula d’Entitats del Tercer Sector, the biggest federation of social entities in Catalonia. <albasg@blanquerna.url.edu>
Sànchez Torrents, Jordi. (PhD) Professor of Anthropology in School of Health Science and Professor of History and Contemporary Though in School of Communication and International Relations (Ramon Llull University). His research interests include work in religion, communication and culture, religions and dialogue and urban topics. He serves as a deputy-director in Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture and he’s a coordinator of a Diploma in Communication and Religion in the Digital Age. Journalism Bachelor’s degree, Anthropology Bachelor’s degree, Religious studies bachelor’s degree and doctor (PhD) of Communication Sciences. <jordist@blanquerna.url.edu>
Van Reeth, Magali. She is a journalist and film reviewer for SIGNIS (website www.signis.net) and for a network of French Catholic parishes and French Catholic Medias (radio, TV and magazines). She leads premiere screenings in commercial cinemas and a workshop on Cinema and Spirituality in prison. She is a member of the Fipresci through the French Union des journalistes de cinéma (current board member). She has been a member of different SIGNIS, Ecumenical, Interreligious and Fipresci Juries since 2000. She has been General Secretary of Signis France since 2006 and the President of Signis Europe since 2013. <signisfrance@gmail.com>
Enric Vendrell
General Director of Religious Affairs. Government of Catalonia.
This book is the result of the 1st International Seminar of Film and Values organized by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication) and Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture, in Barcelona the 23rd November 2016.
The cinema, through its stories, has become a place for meeting, understanding and mutual recognition between peoples and cultures. Cinema as a communicative act, with its stories, invites people to become emotionally involved and becomes a powerful tool to promote the dialogue.
I also am one of those who thinks that religions can be the leaders of this meeting. But for religions to be able to play this role, they have to be freed from all types of prejudice and stereotype; we as citizens need to have a greater level of knowledge about religions. This is what the Government of Catalonia seeks to promote, better knowledge as a way to ensure dialogue and peaceful co-existence. This is why I am here.
In a society where images are especially relevant in the collective imagination, we believe that we must use the cinema to promote personal growth and emotional education.
In fact, the religious experience has often been transferred to the screen and different religious manifestations form part of cinema’s drama. Religious sensitivity is known to be present in a good number of directors, from Europe, as well as from Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Believers of different religions have also been present in cinema festivals across the globe since the beginning. Ecumenical and interreligious juries continue to highlight meaningful films due to their human and religious values.
More recently, yet also with deep roots, different festivals from across the world promote interreligious dialogue, thus encouraging film makers to produce, distribute and play these types of films. Those who participate in this seminar are representatives of these kinds of initiatives in different geographic areas.
In Catalonia, we have celebrated the Spiritual Cinema Festival for 13 years. This proposal brings together significant films from the spiritual point of view which are not well known to the public, but it also offers, in pre-screening, key film titles from different religions, as well as films from a lay perspective which deal with transcendental topics.
The Polish director Krzystof Zanussi, in our 2016 Festival’s opening ceremony, claimed: “It’s a shame that there are so many spiritual cinema festivals and they don’t connect with each other”.
By convening this Seminar with the promoters of different cinema and religion festivals, the Government of Catalonia expressly intends to facilitate the exchange of experiences and to promote collaboration between different organizations. We do not want this initiative to be a one-time event, but rather to allow for synergies in the future. This is our goal.
Dr. Jordi Sànchez Torrents
Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture. Ramon Llull University.
After F. Nietzsche killed God, we have traversed through nihilism; we have passed through multiple secularization processes starting with the Enlightenment, yet religion, transcendence and spirituality remain. Perhaps they are not the same, but they still remain. Western society may not have become so disenchanted after all (M. Weber, 1919).
What Georg Steiner said years ago in his work Nostalgia for the Absolute (1974) has come true. The metanarratives J.F. Lyotard (1987) spoke of, those which give a global meaning to history, have disappeared but the religious impulse, and this concern for the great beyond still remains. We could say that they remain in humanity’s deep roots in a transcultural manner.
Death, the meaning of life and the place of humans in the world are transversal questions across different civilizations. These are shared questions with different cultural responses. The experience of finiteness and death reveal, as G. Vattimo says, a certain religious and transcendental feeling that is expressed in different areas of human life but in an appropriate and innate form in all branches of art, including cinema.
Cinema is a story telling vehicle. Without a story, there is no cinema. Even if the story is fragmented, deconstructed or unintelligible, cinema is always a story. As a story, each film in turn has a particular discussion and its own universe of meanings. Each film is freed from its own hic et nunc and is found in a separate space and location. This fact relates to the world of dreams and all the myths that go back even to the ‘time before time’, back to the holy places. They are ‘separated’ from the space and time coordinates that govern our everyday world.
Film narratives, however, are closed and open. They are narratively closed with a beginning and an end but they openly present themselves, like a window full of meaning and narrative experiences subjected to the viewers’ eyes – viewers who watch, observe and contemplate the story happening on the screen. The opening is thus found both in the viewer’s interpretation as well as in the story’s symbolism. Viewers hold the key to unlock the narrative through their interpretation, thus extending the narrative to our times. When viewers come in contact with it, the film’s story takes off.
Spiritual stories, essentially symbolic due to their idiosyncrasy, are thus presented as stories which delve into a Mystery with profound questions that need to be narrated: Narrare necesse est.
For J. Berger (1974) everything we see is affected by what we know. As such, we see things related with what we know about the object that we observe: sight, thus, is a relationship. Audiovisual stories made up of past recordings (and of absent objects), closed as it is in part, take new life with our eyes and open up. We give the story our time, we give it life with our own cultural interpretation. Cinema, as with any text, is always interpreted through culture.
Thus, the religious nature of a film depends both on a theme related to transcendental and vital questions as well as the viewers’ interpretation of the film, by relating with it.
Themes in religious films are broad, with blurry boundaries. There is an intermediate border between religious and spiritual themes and philosophical themes: the themes emerging from the ultimate questions as M. Heidegger expressed.
Questions about the meaning of existence or life itself, of death and the human condition are recurrent in the history of thought (and especially in the existentialism of J.P. Sartre or S. Kierkegaard, among others). They are a prolific topic for spiritual cinema, which opens the door to proposing these themes or to their response from agnostics, atheists or believers. The path of the individual or the collective toward the search for ultimate meaning, for a meaning to one’s own existence, happiness, God or an ultimate Being are, in themselves, questions shared by both philosophy and theology.
In short, we could say that the themes which arise as a result from this anxious attitude toward the ultimate questions unite what Pascal had divided: the God of the philosophers and the God of the prophets. We could say that spiritual themes are those that delve into the ultimate questions. In the world of inwardness and introspection, it is linked with the spirit understood as consciousness or as the essence of human beings made both of body and soul.
On the other hand, the explicit narrations of a religious experience or any other history explained from the belief in the existence of God or from religious faith are considered religious themes. Both the topic which narrates a religion’s historical events as well as those which reflect on who God is and what role God plays in the personal or collective life are thus religious films. Films such as Jesus of Nazareth (1977); or Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972); The Little Buddha (1993) or Mohammed, Messenger of God (1976) are some examples.
Concerning language, cinema is found in the same impasse as any type of language and artistic expression when we try to delve into metaphysical and transcendental themes. Exploring the orbit of religious experience or searching for meaning is an implicit investigation into the limits of our language. The philosopher Amador Vega explains that languages make it possible for the Word to appear, but language also has a finite limit: “Language is the expression of the Word, but also its limit and death”.
‘Explaining God’ is an oxymoron. ‘Explaining’ is ipso facto to strip divinity from God. If God can be caged in language this means that God has lots his ineffability, absoluteness and infinite nature. As such, expressing one’s personal experience with God is a difficult task. As Saint John of the Cross said in the 16th century: “Only he to whom it has happened will know how to feel, but not to explain”.
Faced with this impossibility of expressing the Mystery of God or life, we can choose to show it or to be silent. ‘Silent’ in the sense of abandoning the presumptuous ambition of dealing with themes beyond language and empirical evidence. Otherwise, we must be silent before the Mystery.
In another sense, the use of silence in spiritual and religious cinema is particularly interesting. Silences are meaningful. They neither explain nor show. Consider, for example, the use of silence in films such as The Tree of Life (2011), Into Great Silence (2005), or Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003). These stories are filled with silences which were not motivated by nihilism but rather by the atmosphere of listening common to most religious traditions: profound and precise silences, mystical silences which express what cannot be said.
From the positivist point of view, using language to deal with spiritual or metaphysical themes is like riding atop a galloping horse into a shop full of fragile objects. Language is a tool which is unfortunately too unwieldy for grasping realities beyond our reach. However, L. Wittgenstein himself years after having laid the foundations of positivism would say, through the ‘language games’ concept, that in addition to the language of reason (rational and scientific) there is also a language of feelings and of the sacred. Therefore, the world is also expressed in ‘language games’: in prayer, silence, worship or meditation. It is not a scientific or logical language, but a parabolic and symbolic language.
Díez,M.; Sànchez, J. (2016) Media Atheism and literature in Europe. Barcelona: Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture.
Eliade, M. (2000) Tratado de historia de las religiones. Madrid: Ed. Cristiandad.
Ferry, L.; Gauchet, M. (2007) Lo religioso después de la religión. Barcelona: Anthropos.
Geertz, C. (2009) La interpretación de las culturas. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Lyotard, J.F. (1987). La condición posmoderna: informe sobre el saber. Buenos Aires: Cátedra
Ricoeur, P. (1969) Le Conflit des interprétations. Essais d’herméneutique. Paris: Seuil.
Steiner. G. (2001) Nostalgia del Absoluto. Barcelona: Siruela.
Weber, M. (2003) El político y el científico. Madrid: Alianz.
Wittgenstein, L. (2009). Obra completa. Madrid: Gredos.