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White kids buy a lot of hip-hop music, including the raunchy stuff that's so demeaning to women—the pimpin' and the bling-bling image. It also seems like white kids go to black movies that are full of violence, street life, gangs. What's up with that? A fascination with the culture?

Christine: The fact that they're drawn to the most debasing element of black culture, to me speaks volumes about their own values or lake thereof. But I think they look at it purely from an entertainment perspective.

Almost a voyeuristic thing?

Christine: Absolutely. It really concerns me that people are driven toward only the stereotypical elements of black cultures. And a lot of black people have been guilty of exploiting that as well. But from a Christian perspective, that's very disconcerting.

Michael: I think white suburban kids embrace rap and hip-hop, so now you find a lot of rap artists being placed in Hollywood movies, because the studio execs know that they can attract a white audience. Barbershop is a great example. So a lot of great actors who have been trained and have gone to Julliard are not getting the parts, and this is kind of frustrating I think for these trained actors.

You mean like an Ice Cube getting a leading role, like in Are We There Yet?

Michael: Yeah.

Christine: We think Ice Cube has officially been castrated by doing Are We There Yet? He's gone from being straight out of Compton to Are We There Yet? So it's really a question of just capitalizing on his popularity.

Michael: Same thing with Queen Latifah, making a lot of these buffoonery movies, like Taxi and The Cookout. And she's producing these types of movies. So a lot of our actors are also putting their thumbprint on these films, so we can't always blame the studio system.

Have black movies through the years been good to the gospel message? Can you think of a movie that got it right?

Christine: Woman Thou Art Loosed is a good example, and I can speak about it because I was involved in writing the script. But I think the field is wide open for poignant, substantive movies that deal with the message of the gospel. I don't know if I've been called to do that; sometimes I grapple with that. I'm like, Lord, please don't make me make those kind of movies that I cringe in the theaters to see. You know, those films that are an embarrassment to the cross. But at the same time, the more experience I get as a filmmaker, the more comfortable I am at tackling that kind of issue in an intelligent way that will legitimize the craft of filmmaking.

So, what's next for you two?

Michael: Two projects on the horizon. One is a film about two filmmakers who travel south in search of the actor Morgan Freeman and come to discover much more about themselves and their past. Another is a film called Preacher Man, about a televangelist from the south who wagers everything to go primetime. We really examined the whole subculture of televangelism.

Christine: Remember when I said I'm kind of reluctant about doing Christian-based films? But Preacher Man will be my most distinct Christian film. So it will really be interesting to see how it turns out.

Is the preacher man a good guy? When people hear the word "televangelist," you think of scandal.

Michael: Right. Or they laugh.

Christine: But this character is very human and three-dimensional. I think his motives are good. I think along the way he's challenged by the pressures of leading a ministry and growing a ministry, and sometimes he may get caught up and change along the way. But it's really a testament or a story about God's grace of restoring us to that place of peace that we tend to stray from when we stray away from him.

For more on Faith Filmworks, click here. For more on the Swansons' movie, All About You, click here.

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