Lights, Camera…
Do you have your film festival tickets this week? The 47th Cleveland International Film Festival has begun, and I’ve got my schedule lined up. As many of you know I worked in film production for a few years before going to divinity school, so I’ve always been excited about creative movies that change how we see the world.
This year features several films that line up with Trinity Cathedral’s commitment to justice, creativity, and inclusion. We are community partner for 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture, about how the addition of the word homosexual changed and filtered how we read Scripture and thus distorted our perception of LGBTQ+ persons for decades. I hope you’ll attend at 7:25 p.m. on March 30 at Playhouse Square (advance tickets may be required, see below for ticket information, including a Trinity discount) or watch it online during Holy Week to learn about this history, and how we can rediscover the radical welcome at the heart of Scripture.
Those wanting to learn more about racial justice might consider Rise and Rebuild: A Tale of Three Cities about the deterioration of Black wealth through racist development or Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom about the history of our nation’s most recent federal holiday or Gumbo Coalition about grassroots efforts to combat white supremacy.
If you would like to see films about environmental stewardship and the climate crisis, consider The Grab, about those seeking to control our world’s food and water supply, or Who Are the Marcuses? about an effort to fund water stewardship projects in Israel.
Need more movies than what the festival has to offer this year? Consider the trailer for The Philadelphia 11, a new film being made to commemorate the first women ordained priests in The Episcopal Church. This film is still in production, and this week the Worship, Art, and Music team invites you to contribute to the completion of that film.
So as you can tell, I’m a big fan of great movies. I hope that whether at the festival or in your own home (or even at your local library) you can seek out some films that expand how you see the presence of God in our lives.