Submitted by Mac Nicoll on 22 November 2007 - 9:44pm.
Never kill a question, it is a fragile thing. A good question deserves to live. One doesn’t so much answer it as converse with it, or, better yet, one lives with it.
Gerhard Frost in ‘Bless my growing’
I recalled this long remembered verse after my third viewing of the five films. What a feast! So many issues, so many questions raised in 30 minutes of film! What a wonderful discussion starter for a group of honest thinkers trying to make sense of life, attempting to chart a path through the minefields of contemporary life and thought, willing to acknowledge both problem and mystery.
My first choice is The Boss. What a quirky, startling film; full of humour, surprise and disturbing questions! A cheeky logo to begin, a spider that burps, some weird buildings, strange music, a terrifying manipulator all squeezed into four minutes. The Boss asks the most confronting question of all. Is there someone in control of it all and if so who can they possibly be to leave us in such a troubled, albeit strangely beautiful world.
In response to this half hour of stimulus, I can sympathise with any viewer drawing some pessimistic conclusions about the pain of being neglected and isolated, the frustration of glimpsing but never being able to grasp the joy and fulfilment that we may have momentarily glimpsed, the genuine despair in trying to reconcile a faith in One who loves and cares for creation with the utter randomness of the world’s pain and violence, the suspicion that faith is simply a human defence by people whose lives of quiet desperation would otherwise be unbearable.
And yet, as I allow myself to sit with the pain of the questions raised in these films, there is a fragile affirmation that the One we name as God, the God we meet in Jesus Christ, is somehow down there in the depths with us, suffering with us in our despair and brokenness.Only a suffering and mysteriously powerless God can guide me through these mysteries.
My Favorite
Never kill a question,
it is a fragile thing.
A good question deserves to live.
One doesn’t so much answer it as converse with it,
or, better yet, one lives with it.
Gerhard Frost in ‘Bless my growing’
I recalled this long remembered verse after my third viewing of the five films. What a feast! So many issues, so many questions raised in 30 minutes of film! What a wonderful discussion starter for a group of honest thinkers trying to make sense of life, attempting to chart a path through the minefields of contemporary life and thought, willing to acknowledge both problem and mystery.
My first choice is The Boss. What a quirky, startling film; full of humour, surprise and disturbing questions! A cheeky logo to begin, a spider that burps, some weird buildings, strange music, a terrifying manipulator all squeezed into four minutes. The Boss asks the most confronting question of all. Is there someone in control of it all and if so who can they possibly be to leave us in such a troubled, albeit strangely beautiful world.
In response to this half hour of stimulus, I can sympathise with any viewer drawing some pessimistic conclusions about the pain of being neglected and isolated, the frustration of glimpsing but never being able to grasp the joy and fulfilment that we may have momentarily glimpsed, the genuine despair in trying to reconcile a faith in One who loves and cares for creation with the utter randomness of the world’s pain and violence, the suspicion that faith is simply a human defence by people whose lives of quiet desperation would otherwise be unbearable.
And yet, as I allow myself to sit with the pain of the questions raised in these films, there is a fragile affirmation that the One we name as God, the God we meet in Jesus Christ, is somehow down there in the depths with us, suffering with us in our despair and brokenness.Only a suffering and mysteriously powerless God can guide me through these mysteries.