Yesterday’s class discussion led me to continue thinking about two, related issues. First, Deliver us from Evil is the second film we’ve seen this semester that discusses religion. How would you compare and contrast Deliver us from Evil and Trembling Before G-d? How do Berg and Dubowski represent their respective religions? What are their relationships with the film subjects? Do these two films have anything in common?
Second, the mid-2000s seemed to be quite a popular time for documentaries on topics relating to religion. For example, there’s Kirby Dick’s 2004 documentary Twist of Faith, a film that also examines the clergy sex abuse scandal, as well as Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s popular documentary Jesus Camp from 2006 (a documentary about children and Evangelical Christianity). In 2007, Daniel Karslake made For the Bible Tells Me So, a film exploring homosexuality and religion. There’s also Lake of Fire, Tony Kaye’s 2006 documentary about the abortion debate that devotes a considerable amount of time to the role of religion within this controversial issue. Moreover, this is just a sampling of the works created recently that address religion. This makes me ask: Why? Why so many docs about religion at this particular time? Is it, as Carl Cannon suggested in his article assigned for this week, that the 2000s have been a time (i.e. the “post Monica Lewinsky” period) when the media are more willing to tackle controversial, previously taboo issues? Or can this phenomenon be explained by something else? Why do you think that religion seems to be a popular preoccupation of recent documentary cinema?
