Christian movie industry

Introduction

In 1646, a Catholic priest called Athanasius Kircher promoted the magic lantern in his book. Later, some priests and groups of people used it to show power or to fight alcohol. In the 1800s, missionaries like David Livingstone used it to share the Gospel in Africa.

A lot of Christians begun using movies for their work as time went by. Herbert Booth from the Salvation Army said he was the first to use movies for Christianity in the year 1899

20th century

In the 1940s, Christian movie libraries began. In 1945, Harvey W. Marks started the Visual Aid Center. In 1968, Harry Bristow opened Christian Cinema in Philadelphia, later moving it to Ambler in the 1970s. The theater showed only Christian movies until it closed in the mid-1990s. The growth of these libraries led to the Christian Film Distributors Association (CFDA) in 1974, which held yearly conferences. The group, later called the Christian Film and Video Association, gave Crown Awards to movies that honored Jesus Christ.

In 1941, Spencer Williams made The Blood of Jesus, a movie shown in cinemas and Black churches. The movie was made in Texas with only US$5,000. To show the afterlife, Williams used scenes from a 1911 Italian movie, L'Inferno. The cast included beginner actors and a church choir that sang gospel music. The movie's success helped Williams make more movies for Sack Amusement Enterprises, including Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (1942, now lost) and Go Down Death (1944).

In 1971, a movie called "If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?" was made from a sermon by Estus Pirkle. He first preached it in 1968 in Mississippi. Later, he worked with a filmmaker called Ron Ormond to turn the sermon into a movie. They also made other movies like The Burning Hell (1974) and The Believer's Heaven (1977). The first movie was their most famous and was shown in many churches and camps during the 1970s.

Cinemas and movie shows

Since 1941, when The Great Commandment was shown in theaters, many Christian filmmakers have tried to put their movies in cinemas. World Wide Pictures worked with churches to do this. Gateway Films was started to share the Gospel in normal theaters and released The Cross and the Switchblade in 1972. In 1979, the Jesus movie came to theaters in the U.S. It was based on the Gospel of Luke and cost $6 million to make by Campus Crusade for Christ.

In 1993, Tom Saab started the Merrimack Valley Christian Film Festival in Salem, New Hampshire. Every year, it happens during Easter week, and thousands of people come to watch Christian movies for free. His group, Christian Film Festivals of America, also held festivals in California and Florida. In 1999, the first WYSIWYG Film Festival was held at the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco. Other Christian movie festivals include the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, the 168 Hour Film Project, and the Redemptive Film Festival.

Since then, many Christian movies have been shown in theaters. Some of them are The Omega Code (1999), Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002), Facing the Giants (2006), Fireproof (2008), Courageous (2011), God's Not Dead (2014), War Room (2015), I'm Not Ashamed (2016), I Can Only Imagine (2018), Breakthrough (2019), and Overcomer (2019).

In 2006, about 50 Christian movies were made. They had about $39 million each on average. All big Hollywood studios started making plans to reach Christian and family audiences. Ted Baehr, the publisher of Movieguide, said that competition for Christian viewers is now strong and keeps growing. He also said the Christian audience for books, music, and movies has become steady and even bigger.

The growth of Christian movies led to many online stores that only sell and share Christian and family-friendly movies. Some of these are Parables.tv, Exploration Films in Colorado, FishFlix.com, ChristianCinema.com, and ChristianMovies.com. Parables TV also offers streaming and TV. In 2013, FishFlix.com opened the first DVD store made just for Christian DVDs in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The 2014 movie God's Not Dead is one of the most successful Christian movies ever made. In 2015, War Room became the number one movie at the box office.

South Africa

In South Africa, Christian movies are popular because most people are Christians. One movie is Faith Like Potatoes (2006), a true story about farmer-turned-preacher Angus Buchan.

Nigeria

Nigerian Christians are part of Nollywood, the country's big movie industry. About 20% of Nigerian movies are Christian. Many small companies, ministries, and big churches make hundreds of Christian movies and see themselves as different from Nollywood. But many of their movies still become popular and are shown on state TV.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God started a studio called Dove Studios, which became the biggest movie studio and distributor in Nigeria. By April 2006, they had sold over 50,000 movie copies. Another big event in Nigeria is the Gospel Film Festival (GOFESTIVAL).

Further reading

• Field, Alex (October 31, 2004). The Hollywood Project: A Look Into the Minds of the Makers of Spiritually. Relevant Books. ISBN 0-9746942-1-5.
• Kintz, Linda; Julia Lesage (April 1998). "Chapter 7: The Emergence of Christian Video and the Cultivation of Videovangelism". Media, Culture, and the Religious Right. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-3085-2.
• Bowen, Barry. "A History of Christian Films". Christian Headlines. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2009.
• Hess, Brian. "A Brief History of Christian Films: 1918-2002". A/V Geeks Educational Film Archive. Archived from the original on June 3, 2009. Retrieved November 21, 2009.
• Christiano, Rich (May 8, 2005). "How to Finance and Distribute a Christian Film". Audio CD. ISBN 0975526472.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
• Lindvall, Terry The Silents of God (Scarecrow Press, 2001)
• Lindvall, Terry Sanctuary Cinema (New York University Press, 2007)
• Lindvall, Terry and Andrew Quicke Celluloid Sermons: The Emergence of the Christian Film Industry, 1930–1986 (New York University Press, 2011)
• (in French) Seguins Pazzis, Bruno de, Quand le christianisme fait son cinéma, Paris, Le Cerf, 2018, 502 p. ISBN 978-2-20411-8-767.
• Shen, Hsiang Yen, Cross-cultural effectiveness of Christian message films: Taiwanese responses to the concepts of God and Christianity in the film "Bruce Almighty",(ProQuest, 2010).