April (Web-only) 2004

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This week, the Cornerstone Festival posted the lineup for its film festival, Flickerings. Last year, hundreds of Christians gathered to view little-known works, foreign films, and provocative documentaries, and then stayed around to discuss them afterward.

For this year's event, festival director Mike Hertenstein has pulled together another remarkable lineup with three different tracks of viewings. Two screenings will be co-presented by The Matthews House Project and Christians for Biblical Equality. Other Christian film critics whose work is regularly excerpted here in Film Forum will be present to introduce some of the films.

Hertenstein explains that "The Great Awakenings," the first viewing track, will explore these questions: "What if the world is bigger than we realized? What if we can't see this, unless we learn to see differently? What if learning to see differently isn't easy? And if we should get the chance to grow, will we take it?"

Featured titles in this track include The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2002), The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1999), Whale Rider (Niki Caro, New Zealand, 2002), and one of my favorite films of the last decade: Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (Edward Yang, Taiwan, 2000).

The second track, "The Gospel According to Tax Collectors and Sinners," is a track that Hertenstein says is "not for everybody. Each in its way is problematic, due to issues of style, content, or the filmmaker's life and career." But Hertenstein insists that "a judicious and thoughtful confrontation with these films in the shadow of Gibson's Passion seems appropriate, and within a solid faith context, even overdue."

Titles in this track include Jesus of Montreal (Denys Arcand, Canada, 1989), The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1988), The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paulo Pasolini, Italy, 1964).

The third track, "The Lost Boys," includes films that "touch upon boyhood interrupted by a cruel world, the struggles of various kinds of orphans."

Titles include one of last year's finest films: The Son (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, France, 2002), Hard Goodbyes: My Father (Penny Panayotopoulou, Greence, 2002), and Bus 174 (Felipe Lacerda & Jose Padilha, Brazil, 2002.)

Click here to read all about Flickerings, its featured films, and how Christian filmmakers can become involved.

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