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We've been wrestling with the question of just how explicit, in the things of faith, a Christian film should be. Should it be in your face with Jesus and the gospel, or should it be more subtle?

We asked two sharp-thinking filmmakers to help us wrestle with the question. Rik Swartzwelder is an L.A. filmmaker whose short, The Least of These, won numerous awards on the film festival circuit. Atlanta's Angela Harvey is a filmmaker, writer, graphic designer, and founder of Crimson, which produces independent films, gospel tracts and greeting cards.

In an oversimplified nutshell, Swartzwelder believes Christian filmmakers should feel free to be direct with spiritual content—including the gospel—in the context of cinematic storytelling, while Harvey believes such things should be communicated in a more subtle way, if at all. With those assumptions as the starting point, we asked Rik and Angela to debate their positions in an e-mail exchange—which we're now sharing with you in a special four-part series, starting today and running through Thursday.

We kicked off yesterday with Part 1, where both parties essentially presented their opening positions on the topic. The debate steps up a notch today with Part 2 …

Angela Harvey writes:

Let me address some of the direct questions you've posed, then I'll delve deeper into my position.

First, I did not say, nor did I intend to imply, that Christian filmmakers should hide their faces or their faith from the audience. That would be disingenuous and a terribly unsatisfying experience. When I say "Christian themes," I mean that filmmakers can incorporate things like quoting Scripture in dialogue, though perhaps not citing chapter and verse. (Although I do believe Christian-ese words like "repent" and "get saved" should be avoided.)

We can create important characters who are likable and intelligent, and then incidentally show them to also be Christians. Christian characters are often portrayed as murderous sociopaths (Man on Fire, 21 Grams), just barely hanging on to a remaining thread of faith (The Apostle), or just plain weird (I Heart Huckabees). We can also certainly have characters "talking about and wrestling with the existence of God," but there's nothing inherently Christian about that; it's part of the human experience.

That said, I disagree with the premise that other filmmakers are free to be as much of themselves as they wish. As an African-American filmmaker, I can say that there is quite a bit of pressure to suppress some of the "ethnicity" in our films. If we don't, we end up making films solely with and for other blacks. The examples you referred to—Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and Woody Allen—are not standard points of reference, but exceptions to the rules. The danger of consistently making films that are "too" anything—ethnic, political, religious—is not only that you alienate segments of your potential audience, but also that you paint yourself into a corner as to what audiences will believe that you can express. At this point in their careers, can you see Oliver Stone making a romantic comedy or Woody Allen directing a war flick? Can you imagine John Singleton making a film set on a farm? I'm not saying that they'd be incapable, but that the audience might be less than accepting.

Moving on …

I absolutely believe that audiences of all ages, races and backgrounds are looking for the moral in the story, although they may not use those words to express it. Next time you leave the cineplex after having seen the shoot-em-up du jour, eavesdrop on the kids' conversations. Those boys, after talking about how cool the biggest explosions were, will move on to characterization. They'll talk about the premise: "Do you think that could ever really happen?" "What would you have done if that were you?" The audience doesn't just walk out of the theater brain-dead and full of popcorn.

As Christians, we should take advantage of that. Or rather, we should allow the Holy Spirit to take advantage of that. That is of course, assuming that we expect the Holy Spirit to take the messages in our films and use them to draw people closer to himself. Every filmmaker wants his audience to experience the beauty or the fun or the tortured anguish of his work through his eyes. That's his job, and it's a noble pursuit. But he has to leave room for the audience to see themselves in his work as well. That's part of what makes it relatable and memorable. So, if we are going to make "Christian" films, people need to see some of their own experiences being lived out—their own questions at least being asked if not answered.

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Related Elsewhere:

Should Films Be Faith-Explicit?	Printer view
That's the question we posed to two Christian filmmakers on both sides of the issue. We initiated an e-mail debate between them, and while there were no easy answers, the lively exchange is instructive. Part 1 of 4.

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Should Films Be Faith-Explicit?	Printer view
That's the question we posed to two Christian filmmakers who were coming from two sides of the issue. We initiated an e-mail debate between them, and while there were no easy answers, the lively exchange is instructive. Part 3 of 4.

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Should Films Be Faith-Explicit?	Printer view
That's the question we posed to two Christian filmmakers who were coming from two sides of the issue. We initiated an e-mail debate between them, and while there were no easy answers, the lively exchange is instructive. Part 4 of 4.