Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier’s challenging chorus

Heschel, Bonhoeffer, Thurman, Niebuhr and Day

EARLY EACH YEAR, especially during winter weather or the Christian season of reflection called Lent, many congregations challenge members to reflect on faith through the lens of film. This year, there’s a wonderful new faith-and-film resource from veteran filmmaker Martin Doublmeier. Please, read our cover story, which includes an interview with Doblmeier about the inspiring impact of these films—as well as links to purchase the films either on DVD or via direct streaming. And, please, share this news with friends via email or social media.

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And, speaking of modern-day prophets …

‘He told me I was a citizen of the world.’

AUTHOR KEN WHITT writes about a life-changing encounter he had with E. Stanley Jones more than half a century ago when Ken was a young man studying in Mexico. Please enjoy this column and share it with friends via social media.

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Martin Davis—

The Glitz of the Super Bowl Left Me Wondering:
Have we forgotten the true value of sport?

MARTIN DAVIS writes, this week, about the true allure of sport? Has the glitz and glamor of the Super Bowl eclipsed the timeless value? Please, enjoy this column and share it with friends on social media.

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Religious Holidays

Preparing for Lent 2022?

FROM ‘MEATFARE’ AND ‘CHEESEFARE’ THROUGH MARDI GRAS

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS columnist Stephanie Fenton reports on some of the most colorful and beloved traditions of the Christian year as followers of Western and Eastern churches prepare for the reflective season of Lent.

First: Orthodox Christians prepare for Great Lent with Meatfare Sunday and Cheesefare Sunday

Then, Stephanie reports: Christians mark ‘Fat Tuesday’ with tantalizing traditions for Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)

Ayyam-i-Ha and Nineteen-Day Fast

Baha’is celebrate unity, prepare for New Year

THEN, STEPHANIE BRINGS US a story from the Baha’i tradition. She explains a special adjustment Baha’is make to their calendar to keep observances in the proper seasons of the year—plus she writes about the fast in preparation for the upcoming Baha’i New Year.

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WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com

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Susan Stitt

Tips for writers

WE TRULY DO REPRESENT A COMMUNITY OF WRITERS and, this week, in her Front Edge Publishing column, Marketing Director Susan Stitt shares the second in her two-part series of columns helping authors prepare for marketing their books. This week, she focuses on the preparation that will produce top-quality interviews with reporters, bloggers and podcasters.

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Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns:

• LINCOLN’S DILEMMA—Ed praises the new four-part series about Lincoln and Frederick Douglas that just debuted on Apple TV+
• SUNDOWN—Mexico’s Michel Franco’s new film challenges viewers to figure out their feelings toward its troubled main characters.
• BINTI—Ed McNulty writes, “Tanzanian director and writer Seko Shamte, with fellow writer Angela Ruhinda, decries the plight of four women whose stories are loosely connected by their gender that leaves them almost powerless in a male-dominated society. The title means ‘young woman’ in Swahili.”
• CASABLANCA—This is the 80th anniversary of the movie classic, so Ed reached back into his own archives and has posted this thoughtful column about the movie.
• THE LAST DUEL—”Director Ridley Scott may have entered his 8th decade, but this film, his best period piece since Gladiator, shows that he has not slowed down artistically. And the screenplay is the result of stars Mat Damon and Ben Affleck (remember Good Will Hunting?) reuniting as writers”
• MY BEST FRIEND ANNE FRANK—”Based on the book Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend by Alison Leslie Gold, the film tells the story of the friendship between Anne and Hanneli Goslar from 1942 to 1945.”
• A HERO—”Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has given us a very different film from his 2012 film, A Separation, the first Iranian film to win the Academy Award for best foreign language film. This new one centers on the divorced father of a stuttering boy whose life is turned upside down by social media. “
• AMEND: THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA—”This is an excellent primer on a US Constitutional amendment that often is overshadowed by debates over the First or the Second Amendment rights. Robe Imbriano, creator and co-writer of this 6-part TV miniseries takes us on a journey into the past that truly illuminates the present.”
• AMERICAN UNDERDOG—”Brothers Andrew and John Erwin, adapting football player Kurt Warner’s same-titled memoir, American Underdog, have given us an underdog story to beat all such unlikely stories.”
• MUNICH: THE EDGE OF WAR—”In Christian Schwochow’s what-if movie, fact and fiction are mixed together in a compelling way. Based on the bestseller by Robert Harris, the film transports us to the halls of Whitehall and Munich in 1938 when Europe stood on the precipice of war.”

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