Christian Filmmakers

The first report I heard earlier today:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/januaryweb-only/13-41.0.html?start=1

Dispatch from Jos, Nigeria
More Human Smoke Rises in Jos
This week’s deadly riots struck home for the academic dean of ECWA Theological Seminary.
Sunday B. Agang | posted 1/21/2010 09:28AM

While the whole world was mourning and grieving the loss of lives and property in earthquake-hit Haiti, human premeditated violence struck the city of Jos. The capital of Plateau State in North Central Nigeria, Jos was thrown into another round of violence when unsuspecting church goers were attacked by unprovoked Muslim youth.

“Muslim youths on Sunday [January 17] attacked Christian worshipers unprovoked,” said Plateau State Commissioner of Police Gregory Ayankiang.

The students of ECWA Theological Seminary Jos (JETS), who had just returned from their Christmas break to start the semester, were thrown into confusion. They had finished their registration a week ago, and every one of them was excited and thrilled to start the semester. Lecturers who had been preparing to teach also came to school on Monday to begin the new semester in earnest.

All that changed. Monday classes had to be cancelled when we learned that the Muslim youth shot one of our undergraduate students, Shem Daniel, on his way back from church on Sunday. He was rushed to one of the hospitals in town unconscious. He eventually died from his wounds on Monday morning.

In the midst of the confusion, some Muslims who usually pass through the seminary compound to their irrigation farm came and wanted to pass to the farm. But our students sent them back because of the tension that was mounting. If it were Christians who went into a Muslim community in such a volatile situation, the Muslims would have killed them.

To encourage each other after the devastating news of our student’s passing on to glory, the school management decided that we should have chapel. During the chapel worship, Provost Bulus Galadima read from Psalm 23:1-6 and Isaiah 40:1-29. He reminded us, “Our emotions are not trustworthy.” In times of crisis, the Bible should be our sole guide. He emphasized that the Word of God is the greatest comfort we have in times like these. “God is still in control,” Galadima reassured the JETS community.

Prayers were said on behalf of those whose loved ones have been killed or wounded. Toward Monday evening, the situation seemed to be under the security operatives’ control. JETS management even decided that we could proceed with classes on Tuesday. But Tuesday morning things took a turn for the worse. After their morning prayer, the Muslims went wild, massacring innocent people. Jos has again been turned into a battle field.

January 19, 2010, Tuesday, the fighting started at 7:10 a.m. From my house on the seminary campus, I could hear frequent gunshots. The gunshots were accompanied by the burning of used tires, cars, houses, churches, business premises, and worse still—human remains.

At 10 a.m. the tension was overwhelming, to the extent that the state government had to impose a 24-hour curfew on Jos city and the neighboring town of Bukuru.

Despite the curfew, the fighting persisted. At noon the smoke from all the burning hovered over the city, creating an ecological hazard. People are stranded in their houses without food and water. Some are without shelter. “The refugees are without food, water, and blankets,” said the Director of Global Relief and Emergency Response Mission in Jos. Worse still, with this crisis, there may be no end to the food crisis in Jos.

We had to cancel classes again on Tuesday. I was standing with several students when some strayed bullets started flying into our seminary campus. We immediately dispersed the students back to their hostels for safety.

The parents of our late student wanted to come and pick up the remains of their son on Tuesday. But due to the high tension, they were advised not to come for the corpse. Besides Shem Daniel, many other people have lost their lives in the violence, and over 4,000 people have been displaced. As in any violence of this magnitude, many people are looking for their missing loved ones.

No one ever thought that barely one year after the violence that hit Jos metropolis and environs on November 28, 2008, the city would again be attacked by people who do not want to give peace a chance. This upraising, along with others that took place in Maiduguri and Bauchi in 2009, culminating in the Boko Haram and Kalakuta sectarian violence, is an indicator of the failed state of social and religious structures in Nigeria. The Catholic Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, expressed dismay at the use of violence to resolve social and communal differences. “We condemn in totality the use of firearms to resolve social matters,” said Kaigama, who also serves as chairman of the Plateau State Inter-Religious Council for Peace and Harmony.

In spite of these challenges, I hope Plateau State will rise to claim its title of being a home of peace, beauty, and tourism. Both Muslims and Christians on the Plateau need to understand that “peace is that calm of mind that is not ruffled by adversity, overclouded by a remorseful conscience, or disturbed by fear.” May we be able to sing with Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life!

Dialogue breaks down not because it doesn’t work but because one of the parties insists on having things done their own way. As Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman has said, “The safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will. But it may be unsettling, and our fear of that may keep us from hearing God. Thank God that he is merciful and relentless.”

Lord Jesus, have mercy on the Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. Those among them who do not have sight cannot follow your will. Give them their sight so that they may see that the way to peace is dialogue.

Sunday B. Agang is Academic Dean of ECWA Theological Seminary in Jos, Nigeria.

Copyright © 2010 Christianity Today.

An article from a couple of days ago…

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/19/nigeria.violence/index.html?iref=allsearch

Scores die in Nigeria religious violence
January 19, 2010 11:47 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

- Activist says at least 70 people killed and about 600 injured in violence
- Violence prompted imposition of a curfew Tuesday
- Hundreds have died in decade of Christian and Muslim clashes in region

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)—Authorities have slapped a curfew on a city that has seen repeated violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, but it has failed to stop the latest outbreak of killing, officials told CNN.

A local activist said at least 70 people had been killed and about 600 injured in the most recent outbreak.

The violence broke out Sunday and flared up again Tuesday, prompting the imposition of a curfew through Wednesday, a local official said.

But the curfew has already been broken and there have been “a number of casualties,” said Gyang Choji, special advisor on religious affairs to the governor of Plateau state.

Sani Shehu of the Civil Rights Congress in Jos said thousands of people had been displaced and were sheltering in military and police headquarters. There was no independent confirmation of Shehu’s figures.

It is not clear what sparked the latest round of violence, but hundreds have died in clashes between Christians and Muslims in central Plateau state in the past decade.

In November 2008, at least 700 Nigerians died in Christian-Muslim riots that followed a disputed local election, Human Rights Watch reported.

The most populous country in Africa, with a population of more than 150 million, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.

With more than 78 million Muslims, it is has the sixth largest Islamic population in the world, according to a study last year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

It has become the focal point of Christian and Muslim groups—in Nigeria and abroad, said Eliza Griswold, who has spent the last five years traveling to Nigeria to examine the causes of religious violence.

“Nigeria has become a battleground state for Christians and Muslims around the world who see themselves involved in a numbers game,” said Griswold, author of “The Tenth Parallel,” an upcoming book that explores the tension between Christians and Muslims just north of the equator in Africa and Asia.

“Any Christian or Muslim who has the point of view that numbers matter has a stake in Nigeria,” she said.

The divisions between Christianity and Islam are more than symbolic in Nigeria. There’s a geographic boundary: Nigerian Muslims tend to live in north, while Christians live in the south, Griswold said.

“There is this attitude that Islam is under siege by the Christian West and, by proxy, Nigerian Christians,” she said. “There is this sense among some devoted Muslims in the north that we need to be part of the larger Islamic community, and we need to prove that we belong.”

...and an article from the BBC today… I’m putting a paragraph in BOLD to try and help us keep a perspective and limit the “who’s at fault” finger-pointing… in a storytelling sense, there are profound and important stories of human interaction going on here…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8472992.stm

.

Nigeria - Mass funerals in Jos riots

Mass funerals have been taking place in the central Nigerian city of Jos, where fighting between Muslims and Christians has left hundreds dead.

A BBC reporter in the region says the easing of a 24-hour curfew has allowed religious leaders to organise burials.

A Red Cross official in Jos told the BBC he had seen scores of bodies on the streets, but the army was in control.

He said some of the 17,000 displaced people were returning home, but others had decided to flee the city itself.

At least 65 Christians and 200 Muslims are believed to have died.

“A lot of people have died but it is very difficult to determine the number because this thing happened in various locations,” Abdul Umar, the Red Cross’s disaster manager co-ordinator, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

“There are dead bodies that are still hidden,” he said, adding that many people had gunshot and machete wounds.

The 24-hour curfew has been eased to allow city residents to leave their homes between 1000 and 1700 local time.

“People are going about their businesses while some people are packing their belongings and fleeing town, which is natural after a situation such as this,” he said.

The BBC’s Shehu Saulawa in neighbouring Bauchi State says there are reports of isolated attacks on the outskirts of the city, which Mr Umar confirmed.

Balarabe Dawud, head of the Central Mosque in Jos, appealed for killings not to avenged.

“Whatever action one takes, can’t bring these people back,” he said pointing to a burial pit, reports the AFP news agency.

Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe told the BBC those behind the violence would be prosecuted.

Mr Umar said the police had detained more than 250 youths in connection with the clashes.

“We got access to them through the police and we have treated most of them that are injured and we provided water and food,” he said.

It is unclear what the trigger was for the latest bout of violence, but there have been reports it started after football match.

Other reports suggested it began after an argument over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2008 clashes.

Jos has been blighted by religious violence over the past decade with deadly riots in 2001 and 2008.

The city is in Nigeria’s volatile Middle Belt - between the mainly Muslim north and the south where the majority is Christian or follow traditional religions.

Correspondents say such clashes in Nigeria are often blamed on sectarianism.

However, poverty and access to resources such as land often lie at the root of the violence.

The news from the mainstream about Nigeria are almost always biased. They don’t tell the whole story. They always use the phrase “violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria”.  That gives the impression that Christians are also to blame when such violence starts. That’s simply not true. Muslims are the ones who always start the violence. In 2001, right after 9/11, the Muslims in Jos took to the streets and started killing Christians. The media don’t tell you about that. I didn’t think they would.

  They were very happy that so many people died at World Trade Center, so they were out on the streets celebrating.  The Christians started fighting back in some areas of the city, naturally to defend themselves from being wiped out, and the whole thing appears in the news as “violence caused by religious tensions”.

  Maybe Christians ought to start a news service, broadcasting secular news, as accurately and as objectively as possible.

It’s difficult to read the report that “At least 65 Christians and 200 Muslims are believed to have died ” and hold on to the impression that it’s all the Muslim’s fault.

Contemplatively,
Calix

(...greater love hath no man…)

I just read this today. (first I heard of it; I haven’t had my radio on lately) It’s a really sad situation over there.

Calix, you mentioned about storytelling and how people interact with each other in such situations…? I’d be interested to hear some of your thoughts on how this could be applied to realistic characters in films.

Calix Lewis Reneau wrote:

It’s difficult to read the report
that “At least 65 Christians and 200 Muslims are believed to have died ” and hold on to the impression that it’s all the Muslim’s fault.

Contemplatively,
Calix

(...greater love hath no man…)

I can’t help but bring this post around to the storytelling topic.

Most stories with that kind of situation end in martyrdom or forgiveness or both.

I see the obvious reasons: it’s a good ending, and it’s all over history.

But, has it been worn out for storytelling….?

I’d elaborate my thoughts but I gotta get off the computer.

There’s a story making the rounds (likely a true one) about a man and a woman who are travelling Africa by bicycle.  They are both believers now, but not too long ago he participated in the vicious butchering of her entire family in front of her.

The problem is not the reality of that story - the problem is that story completely defies our suspension of disbelief. 

We can recount that story, sure, and perhaps - if we are spiritually sensitive - see the awesome power of grace at work. 

But if you put that story on the screen, it’s going to be seen as too simplistic and reductionist.

If I were to approach that particular story, I would actually simplify it even further – I would focus in on the intimate details of their platonic relationship, the little kindnesses, the interpersonal give-and-take.  I would try for the most delicate touch possible, hoping not to violate the gossamer threads that God has spun, rather than go all heavy-handed with it.  I would mention the past as little – and as briefly – as possible, and not show the preaching, but let the audience piece together the horror that the man did to the woman on their own, hoping that the impossible contrast in the viewer’s mind will then be reconciled by the Spirit of God rather than the iron fist of the didactic filmmaker.

But that’s just me, and I don’t have the skills to pull that off – but I recognize it when I see it (I think the secular film The Lives of Others does just that, with that devastating act of grace that is the final line of the film.)

I think the storytelling power of these all-too-common moments of history is to look into the unexpected small acts of grace in the face of overwhelming evil. 

If I were to craft a piece of fiction off of the trouble in Joa, I would follow a devout, sincere, serious Muslim young man who is involved in the chaos; I would show the chaos as being a result of evil at work in hearts on both sides; I would have the young man see a fleeting instance of God’s grace at work in a Christian on the “other side” towards a Muslim – either an act of kindness and physical restraint or salvation, or an act of holy martyrdom carried out for the good of a random Muslim – and then I would have the Muslim struggle with the “they’re infidels worse than dogs” teaching of someone in his sect against that act of grace in his heart, to the point where – at the end of the film – I would have that Muslim do a small act of intentional grace on behalf of a Christian.

I think – in the hands of someone better than I – that could be a powerful, healing story.

Just some thoughts!

How would you do it?

Curiously,
Calix

Perhaps the key isn’t to tweak the story to make it believable - maybe the key is to successfully suspend the disbelief of the viewer through other means so that the viewer will believe it.

I mean, I’ve read a kazillion stories - mostly factual [usually ending in the MC dying], but some fictional [usually ending with some miraculous escape] - with the same types of plotlines and endings in this premise. I can about predict the climax of the story. And perhaps that’s what’s frustrating me; it’s been so gone over, that I don’t feel free to do it again because it’s expected. If I can guess the ending 5 pages into the novel, it’s a Very Bad Thing.

(I also consider it a bad thing to kill off beloved MCs but that’s just my soft-hearted-ness towards my characters…)

I have been thinking of taking this premise and fitting it into another genre. When the viewer’s mind is already prepared to accept the rules of another world, then an over-done premise can be worked in such a way that it is totally unexpected and fresh to the viewer.

(ref: the Colorless Lands in the logline workshops)

Basically, my idea is that it doesn’t matter what setting the story is in because it’s been played out over history in thousands of different settings, from Nazi Germany, to ancient Rome, to the Spanish Inquisition. It’s a type of story that will work just as well in fantasy as any other genre- perhaps better, because it is unexpected (in your average fantasy piece, there is at least one decent sword-fight…)

That was the rest of my thoughts from last night, though they’re not as organized as I thought they’d be…my ideas are not coming down onto the keyboard very effectively right now!

As to the workings of the actual story, besides the setting, I have to get off the computer again so I will have to make it short.

It’s an interesting idea to make the MC the one who is doing the wrong thing throughout the story. I didn’t think of that; though I had thought of doing something similar to the rest of your idea there.

I was thinking something along the lines of Les Miserables. (disclaimer: haven’t read the book or seen any movie/musical version, just heard the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version, which was really good.)
The MC, Jean Valjean, starts the story hating, and by the climax, saves the lives of those around him - whether they want to be saved or not, whether they deserve it or not, whether they might turn around half an hour later and attempt to hurt him.

I’m supposed to be working on the Colorless Lands, which deals with a lot of this kind of thing…it’s a missionary fantasy story, in a way.

BUT

I have to get off the computer now; so sorry to be abrupt with this post!

Jenni Noordhoek wrote:

the key is to successfully suspend the disbelief of the viewer through other means so that the viewer will believe it.

Jenni Noordhoek wrote:

When the viewer’s mind is already prepared to accept the rules of another world, then an over-done premise can be worked in such a way that it is totally unexpected and fresh to the viewer.

I’m impressed!  These are key, crucial points to successful storytelling in any medium, and I really couldn’t have put them any better!

Jenni Noordhoek wrote:

If I can guess the ending

I hate to tell you this, but the more you study writing, the more often this is going to happen. 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve had to work hard at disciplining myself to keep from saying five minutes into a movie I’ve never seen before “okay, what’s going to happen next is -” (mainly because my kids have taken to throwing things at me - and the objects they throw are getting pointy-er!)

Jenni Noordhoek wrote:

consider it a bad thing to kill off beloved MCs

The thing about killing off beloved MCs is it has to be EARNED.  (Yes, I just shouted!)

If you kill off an MC for shock value, or to be clever, or whatever, you’re a lousy writer - a lazy writer.  An MC’s death has to be satisfying, if even bittersweet.

The death at the end of Pay It Forward was completely unearned and ruined the story.

The death at the end of Braveheart was completely earned and completed the story.

As I said - I’m impressed with your insight into story here!

The hard part, of course, is how do you do this?

Cheers,
Calix

(...but that’s where the real adventure begins - w00t!)

Working on this post while writing a press release…

Calix Lewis Reneau wrote:

I’m impressed!  These are key, crucial points to successful storytelling in any medium, and I really couldn’t have put them any better!

They are? I didn’t realize that.

Calix Lewis Reneau wrote:

Jenni Noordhoek wrote:

If I can guess the ending

I hate to tell you this, but the more you study writing, the more often this is going to happen. 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve had to work hard at disciplining myself to keep from saying five minutes into a movie I’ve never seen before “okay, what’s going to happen next is -” (mainly because my kids have taken to throwing things at me - and the objects they throw are getting pointy-er!)

Oh. So it’s just me, and not necessarily bad writing? That’s comforting, though I still want to be quite hard on myself and my writing to make it non-cliche. There is nothing that annoys me more than inappropriate content in a film…......cliche.

Calix Lewis Reneau wrote:

Jenni Noordhoek wrote:

consider it a bad thing to kill off beloved MCs

The thing about killing off beloved MCs is it has to be EARNED.  (Yes, I just shouted!)

If you kill off an MC for shock value, or to be clever, or whatever, you’re a lousy writer - a lazy writer.  An MC’s death has to be satisfying, if even bittersweet.

The death at the end of Pay It Forward was completely unearned and ruined the story.

The death at the end of Braveheart was completely earned and completed the story.

I’m unfamiliar with both films, but I know that Braveheart is based in history (William Wallace, right?) so therefore, there can be no other ending, right?

Anyway, I don’t like killing off MCs because it’s sad. Not particularly for storytelling reasons… (I can only think of two stories off the top of my head where the MC dies: LotR and The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis and they both worked fine…it’s just so sad. **remembers attempting not to tear up at the departure of the Ringbearers into the West**)

It does sound like a lazy writing technique, tho…someone told me that new writers kill off characters just because they’re tired of them and can’t think of anything else to do with them. 

Calix Lewis Reneau wrote:

The hard part, of course, is how do you do this?

Cheers,
Calix

(...but that’s where the real adventure begins - w00t!)

I’ll come back to this later—I gotta get off the comptuer again. :(

Calix Lewis Reneau wrote:

The thing about killing off beloved MCs is it has to be EARNED.  (Yes, I just shouted!)

If you kill off an MC for shock value, or to be clever, or whatever, you’re a lousy writer - a lazy writer.  An MC’s death has to be satisfying, if even bittersweet.

I think a GREAT example of how this works and what it means is the movie Stranger than Fiction. Not going to say anything about it to avoid any major spoilers, but worth seeing.