After a longish break from blogging, it’s time to start again. First up, a series on films that came from comic and graphic novel-based properties. Everyone knows about the films based on comic books like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the Avengers, but what about other films that you might not know were originally based on comic books? First up, Greeks, gangsters, and gargoyles.
(more…)Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
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A dinner table discussion about television shows that scared us witless when we were children prompted this particular post similar in some ways to the Childhood Science Fiction: Television series from a while back now. What follows is my top 5 children’s shows I grew up with in New Zealand that genuinely played with horror alongside other genres and tropes. I’ve tried to limit it to shows purely aimed at children (rather than shows like Doctor Who or Sapphire and Steel which pitched to a wider audience).
I’m not sure these would get made today, though the move to more animated and CGI-generated children’s shows means it’s harder to compare these live-acted dramas with some of today’s offerings. Remember these were on at 4 pm in the afternoon and had no trigger warnings. (more…)
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A while back I wrote about some analogue and digital tools for writing (Digital writing – Part 1). Today, I’m going to look at creating a platform for writing using some of those and other tools. It all starts with an oldish (2014) laptop that is no longer being used. (more…)
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A few years back I started thinking about the relationship between popular culture and contextual and public theologies. Firstly, how popular culture might serve as a site for doing contextual theology and, secondly, how popular culture might provide avenue for for public theological engagement. My initial thinking in this area can be found in the writing listed below, as well as how I’ve been using popular culture to teach ethics, Christian spirituality, contextual and public theology over the past 10-15 years:
- Garner, Stephen. “Morningside for Life!: Contextual Theology Meets Animated Television in Bro’town.” Studies in World Christianity 17, no. 2 (2011): 156-74.
- ———. “Public Theology through Popular Culture.” In The Bible, Justice and Public Theology, edited by David J. Neville, 174-89. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014.
- ———. “Sacred Texts in a Secular World: Teaching Sacred Texts in a Pluralistic, Multi-Faith, Modern University Campus.” The ANZTLA eJournal, no. 10 (2013): 33-46.
After that initial foray into those areas, my research and writing concentrated on my theology and technology project and it is only recently that I’ve started to have time to think again about my religion, media and popular culture project. One of the things I’ll be doing in that is to look at how the medium of graphic novels and comics provide resources for narrating human experiences, for engendering social change, and reflecting upon societal and public goods.
The base material for this, graphic novels and comics, represent an increasing medium for telling these kinds of stories and engaging with the world around us. Within that medium all kinds of genres occur, leading to diverse and rich accounts and imagery to explore. I’m hoping this will be a long-term project sketching both the broad landscape of the medium, as well as being able to hone in on particular issues or topic in more depth. Some of this engagement will be religious and theological, implicitly and explicitly, but it will necessarily be with a range of conversation partners and other disciplines.
I leave you with a selection of comics and graphic novels that form part of the body of material I’ll be looking at (and it’s only the tip of the iceberg).
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Easter is the central point of the Christian calendar and religious and secular broadcasters often put on Jesus films at this time. Most commonly these include Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, the 1977 TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth with Robert Powell starring as Jesus, or one of the many versions of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
But there are many different Jesus films that might be watched and engaged with this Easter. Below I’ve highlighted four that you might not have heard of or watched, as well as my quick guide for thinking about Jesus films while you watch them. (Thinking about Jesus Films (PDF))For more definitive lists of Jesus films see:
- https://www.imdb.com/list/ls079155350/
- Portrayals of Jesus in film
- Biographical films about Jesus
- Jesus films – updating media (Greenflame)
The Gospel of Us (2012)A retelling of the Jesus story set in a contemporary Welsh town and featuring Michael Sheen as The Teacher. Here the oppressive authorities are represented by the company ICU, who plan to put a motorway through the town. The film, directed by Dave McKean, was based on a three-day Passion play version of Owen Sheers novel of the same name put on by Sheen and performed in his home town of Port Talbort. The film is notable for the its inclusion of the townspeople as unscripted extras, as well as performances by The Manic Street Preachers and Paul Potts.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125651/
Risen (2016)Set post Jesus’ resurrection, this is the story of a Roman tribune, played by Joseph Fiennes, who is tasked with tracking down Jesus’ body so as to defuse potential political unrest. Along the way he encounters various of Jesus’ disciples and others who knew or who have seen the risen Christ, before his own personal encounters and the implications of those on his faith and loyalty to Rome.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3231054/
Son of Man (2006)An alternate retelling of Jesus’ death and resurrection set in contemporary South Africa. The biblical locations and people are reset within the context of a southern Africa nation in the midst of civil war, with parallels drawn between the violence and poverty in the biblical settings and those in South Africa. Andile Kosi plays Jesus, who demands that his followers reject war and follow a life of peace instead.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492490
Color of the Cross (2006)A Haitian/US production which retells the Jesus story leading up to the his crucifixion. The film is one of the few that cast Jesus as non-white and stresses that his death was racially motivated. This film didn’t receive much success critically or in the box office, but is an interesting attempt to put a different spin on the gospel story highlighting a different side of oppression and Jesus’ solidarity with those being marginalised.
A second film, Color of the Cross 2: The Resurrection, was released in 2008.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760160/
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The watching one or more Jesus films at Easter is a common activity for Christians individually or as communities. These might be documentaries or one of the many versions of cinematic Jesus that have cropped up over the years. (For some examples, see my list here at Jesus films – updating media). But while these films might directly referring to the person of Jesus of Nazareth, within the wider cinematic world there are characters whose portrayal and actions resemble, in some way, those of Jesus in the gospels. We’ve probably come across films or TV shows like this, where a character of the situation models or reminds us of Jesus and the gospel stories, and gives us a kind of cinematic Jesus. (more…)
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Something I made today when thinking about working from home. Might be a helpful conversation starter. Feel free to share. (PDF link under the picture)
Work at home rhythm (PDF)
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Finding a little peace and distraction while self-isolating can be helpful. Here are three games that I’ve found provide that, and as a bonus, are cheap and cheerful:
- Flower;
- Melody’s Escape;
- Islanders;
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Following on from Meaningful games (Part 1) from a few days ago, here is an additional selection of games that might fall into the category of games that move us in some way, and demonstrate one or more of these dimensions:
- Meaningful choices;
- Flow;
- Social play of some form.
(See previous post for more details on these) (more…)
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In her book, How Games Move Us (The MIT Press, 2016), Katherine Isbister suggests that,
Compelling games don’t happen by accident, any more than do gripping novels, movies, or music. In all these media, creators draw from a well-defined set of strategies and techniques to create a specific emotional experience. (Isbister, 1)
Isbister distills these strategies into three attributes that she sees as essential to creating games the engage their players, not just intellectually, but also affectively. These are:- Meaningful choices: where games offer the players the chance to influence outcomes through their own efforts;
- Flow: where there is a balance between challenge and ability which enables capacity of player growth and immerses them completely in the game play in a form of ‘flow state‘;
- Social play: where there is the possibility of meaningful relationships developed with other players, non-playing characters, and the possibility of self-reflexive awareness.