Filmstrips are a halfway medium between books, with which one can argue, and movies, with which one cannot. This accounts for their innovative vitality, which they are regaining after a period of eclipse. Filmstrips, thoughtfully used, can be informative, entertaining, and conducive to discussion of the subject before, during, and after the presentation.
In this survey of innovative religious filmstrips, I will use the following code letters: c—cassette, r—record, r/c—both record and cassette available, t—text only, and tgx—text, study guide, and extra suggestions. Generally those designated tgx are among the better productions. Filmstrips aimed at the lowest grades are often good up through eighth grade. Very often, animated filmstrips are useful for primary through adult levels.
BIBLE BACKGROUND
ADULTS. How We Got the Bible (c, tgx) was written by Neil R. Lightfoot, professor of Bible at Abilene Christian University. The producer, Gospel Services, is Church of Christ-related. However, except for the a cappella music and one brief reference to Alexander Campbell, Church of Christ distinctives do not enter into this excellent four-part series: “The Bible Comes Into Being,” “The Manuscripts of the Bible,” “The Translations of the Bible,” and “The Bible and Recent Discoveries.” The series is appreciative of conservative evangelical scholarship and the Revised Standard Version.
CHILDREN. How Our Bible Came to Us (r, tgx) comes from the American Bible Society and traces the progress of the Bible from its first writing to the present. Designed for junior high, the four-part series is quite general. Abingdon Audio-Graphics offers a fine, nicely animated Bible Lands and Times (r/c, tgx) for grades three to eight. The filmstrip is divided into four periods: Abraham, Moses, David/Solomon, and Jesus. The only drawback is the accent of the narrator, an Englishman or perhaps an Oxford-educated German. Between the accent and the gutturals, children are bound to miss parts. A sequel with a different narrator is Jesus of Nazareth. A problem with all Abingdon Audio-Graphics records is their paper thinness. If packed wrong, as they sometimes are, they are irretrievably bent.
Concordia Audiovisual Media has two series, The Old Testament Scriptures (fourteen filmstrips, r, t) and The Living Bible (twenty-two filmstrips, r, t), that are biblically solid character studies of Old Testament personalities and the life of Christ. The format is period sets and costumes much in the style of the older and more ambitious Cathedral productions. Unfortunately the record grooves occasionally skip the phonograph arm.
ADULTS. Crowning Touch offers a wide selection of Bible filmstrips. Very few of this company’s productions have audio accompaniments. The creative teacher can use the provided aids (sometimes notes are substituted for texts, and sometimes the text appears on the filmstrip) on his own cassette. The Tabernacle in the Wilderness comes with detailed notes on the New Testament fulfillment of the Old Testament symbolism of the Jewish tabernacle: its buildings, furniture, priesthood, and sacrifices. Daniel’s Prophetic Symbols has pictorial representations of Daniel chapters 2, 7, 8. The only text is Scripture, so these pictures lend themselves to every contested prophetic position. By Faith records the eleventh chapter of Hebrews pictorially and verbatim in print. Crowning Touch’s script, virtually always heavily stylized, has the unfortunate effect of making every filmstrip seem as though it were produced in 1929. This company has access to British filmstrips, which is something of a novelty.
CHILDREN (but not strictly). Twenty-Third Productions is to be highly commended for its beautiful series, The Parables (r, tgx). There are fifteen New Testament parables on five filmstrips. About half are for grades one to three and half for grades four to six, but adults will be delighted by them as well. Each parable is a modern setting of the Scripture. Five of them are animated and the rest use contemporary photos. The narration is expert. These beautiful filmstrips belong in every church media library and will be used again and again.
Alba House Communications is also a very creative company. Walter Fish (c, tgx) is the most clever, humorous, and pathetic retelling of the story of the Good Samaritan one is every likely to come across. The Book of Jonah (tgx) is a read-along filmstrip program that is fun. Both Twenty-Third and Alba House are Roman Catholic producers, but their filmstrips are universal in appeal. The author and artist for The Book of Jonah are both members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
BIBLE RELATED
CHILDREN. Twenty-Third Productions has also produced the four-filmstrip series Holydays and Holidays (r, tgx): Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. These are animated stories that children and teachers will love. They are entertaining, yet the smallest child might reflect on the metaphors. I cannot praise Twenty-Third’s quality work enough. The American Bible Society’s Bicentennial contribution is The Bible and the Presidents (r, tgx). On four filmstrips are Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The filmstrip on Jefferson is misleading where it has him saying about his editing of the Gospels, “When it’s finished, I’ll have the complete words of Christ as recorded in the Gospels.” In fact, Jefferson eliminated the miracles, including the Resurrection!
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CHRISTIAN HISTORY
ADULTS. Two filmstrips, one Roman Catholic and one Protestant, purport to be historical records told straight. Catholics/Americans, released by Paulist Press, is a Bicentennial production. “Never before have so many photos relating to American-Catholic history been assembled in one place” says one blurb. The assembling is a six-unit program on eighteen filmstrips, each approximately ten minutes long. Designed for high schoolers and adults, it will be especially absorbing for persons without a Roman Catholic background.
The pictures that illustrate it are well chosen. They illuminate the American Catholic story from the pre-colonial missionary period of the French and Spanish to the present. Before the viewers’ eyes pass the ups and downs of an ancient church on a new continent.
It is enlightening to learn that American Catholicism, like Protestantism, has had clearly delineated epochs. This is apparent in unit four, the watershed unit, with filmstrips titled “The Americanizers” and “Conservative Reaction.”
There are some errors, strange interpretations, and obvious biases. Lyman Beecher was not a Unitarian minister. It is a misinterpretation to equate early twentieth-century evangelicalism with present-day fortress-like, mind-gate-closed fundamentalism this way: “By 1910, the major denominations had begun to rid themselves of a narrow-minded fundamentalism.…” The date and the designation are incorrect. The filmstrip falls into revisionist history with this rewrite of Revolutionary events: “The Americans were furious at the various taxes imposed on their commerce.… But the crowning blow was the passage of the Quebec Act by Parliament, giving freedom of worship to Canadian Catholics” (italics added). I always knew the Boston Tea Party was a simplification, but this alternative boggles the mind!
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These criticisms aside, Catholics/Americans is a grand salute to America by Christians, and Protestant pastors ought to borrow this masterly series for use in their own church education programs.
Roman Catholics, however, may not be so willing to borrow The History of the Church (t), produced by Tabernacle Pictures but distributed by Crowning Touch. The reason is the printed text of this seven filmstrip series. What Roman Catholic is going to accept the designation of his church as “The Whore of Babylon” umpteen times? However, the text is on paper, and the judicious user can edit the text and even record it on his own cassette.
This is an odd redeeming feature, because in general, the history is accurate (though wooden) and the artwork factually satisfying (literalistic). The text has the additional disadvantage of being tediously long, and not even the most zealous anti-papist can stay alert through its reading. With severe editing, shortening, and enlivening through the use of one’s own cassette (or tape recorder), this can be a useful series. Left as it is, it is accuracy pickled in vitriol. It was first introduced in 1956 and tells the story of Christianity up to Plymouth Rock.
CHILDREN. You Shall Be My Witnesses (r/c, tgx), by Abingdon Audio-Graphics, covers church history from the gospel accounts to early North America. The art is Sunday-school “pix.”—DALE SANDERS, Myrtle Creek, Oregon.
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