Left Behind or Right Ahead?

One of my personal goals is to combine my passion for filmmaking with my passion for my faith and to start shooting some Catholic Christian films. As part of this process, I've been watching a lot of Christian films lately to see the competition and analyze what I feel they do right and what they do wrong.

Observation number one: Most Christian films are badly made. Their production values (lighting, sound, acting, story) are weak. The more films made with sub par production values, the more jaded current Christian viewers will be to products released in the future.

Observation number two: Where would we be without the Rapture? The most common story in Chrisitan films is the post-apocalyptic "now that all of our holy friends have disappeared, what the hell do we do now?" As for storyline, you can't really ask for a better premise than "what would happen if half the population on the planet suddenly disappeared?" However, an inherent problem with tackling such a subject matter is that it often requires a budget far greater than any of the current Christian filmmakers can afford.

As for these Rapture films, I've now watched The Moment After, Six and Left Behind 1 & 2. The Moment After is the best story of the lot, but LB series has much more $$ behind it, so it is satisfying on other levels. In the end, however, the LB story moves along very slowly. I never thought the Rapture could take so long. Six was unwatchable.

As a Catholic, one of the basic problems with these storylines is that they are strict Protestant interpretations of Revelations. They are great ideas, but it is certainly not the only interpretation. For example, another interpretation is that Jesus' second coming is revealed in the Eucharist everyday at Mass. Does the Lord really need to "come again" if he is available in the flesh in the Eucharist?

The most successful Christian film I've seen so far is called Flywheel. Its a touching story of a used car salesman who changes his life. I was pleasantly surprised at how many times this film moved me. It is a story that every Christian should see. I hope that the future of Christian filmmaking starts with the a high quality story and higher-end production values found in projects such as Flywheel and Moment After and LB.

The good news is that, if I can make a high quality product, I'll be at the top of the heap. There is a window of opportunity here and I have to take advantage of it. I just hope that the Christian audience will not be completely jaded by the time we're ready for our first release.