Master Storytellers – Ralph Winter on Christ and Film

This post is late in coming. I attended this lecture that was given as a part of the Faith Film and Philosophy lecture series at Whitworth University on September 26th. Ralph Winter, the producer of the Fantastic 4 movies, Star Treks 4-6, and The X-Men movies, gave a compelling talk about the power of story and becoming better storytellers through film.

Winter made an early point to talk about the necessity of darkness in some stories. Christians try to sanitize things too much. Many of our biblical stories are just packed with darkness and carnage. The Bible doesn’t try to clean that up. It is important from an accuracy perspective, but also from a storytelling perspective. Darkness is intriguing. Jesus was a master storyteller and many of the stories that Jesus told were very dark. The parable of the prodigal son is a great example. It is a dark story. No one gets what they deserve. The loose ends don’t all get tied up. Whatever happened to the older brother? Did he ever forgive the younger brother? Even the name is dark. It isn’t the “parable of the loving father.” It is the “parable of the prodigal son.”

Christians tend to not like the fact that there is darkness in stories so they try to clean them up. Winter believed that the movie “the Nativity” didn’t do as well as everyone hoped because they took all of the darkness away from the story. They glossed over things like the murder of all of the infants in Bethlehem. He said that they told the story right down the middle. Because they were trying to appeal to the Christian audience they sanded away any roughness so as not to offend anyone, but they didn’t grab anyone either. When we rob stories of their darkness we end up with little more than “pious trash.”

Christianity is not just about being nice.

How do we become master storytellers then as churches and as Christians? The rest of Winter’s talk attempted to answer this question. Winter talked about the people who bring him scripts. His big question is always are they moved by their story? We have to tell stories that move us. If we aren’t moved, then why would we expect anyone else to be moved?

Film is a powerful medium. Winter called filmmakers the teaching pastors of the next generation and called movies the new church services. My side-note here, I don’t think he was saying that this is a good thing; it is simply a reflection on the state of the culture. Filmmakers have access to people today the way churches used to.

Because of the effectiveness of film in connecting with our culture, Winter talked about resourcing people to tell stories through film. He talked about missions and how many missionaries are putting work into making a difference with the type of things that are all over the front page of the paper, such as work with AIDS orphans or working in war torn parts of the world. He suggested putting cameras in the hands of our missionaries or sending film teams down to the countries where our missionaries are serving. Instead of reading a prayer letter from a missionary we could show a 5 minute short film showing what our missionaries are up to. This would be much more effective at connecting with people and helping them have a heart for missions.

Winter lamented the lack of Christians in the documentary film world. There have been several culture impacting documentaries made recently by Michael Moore and, of course, the movie that changed the fast food industry, Supersize Me by Morgan Spurlock. Why isn’t there a compelling Christian voice in the world of documentaries?

Winter recently started a company Thomas Winter Cooke that makes really creative and well produced commercials. They are working with a really talented group of directors and doing some great work. He showed us two examples of what they have done so far.

Winter believes that filmmakers are called to raise questions more than provide answers. The church needs to be there with the answers to the questions raised by film.

Followers of Christ should be the most compelling storytellers since our story is the most important one that ever will be told.

Relevant Links:
Ralph Winter is working on a film adaptation of Screwtape Letters!
Whitworth's College Newspaper Article about the lecture
Great Article by Willow Creek on Ralph Winter