Films: Creativity that comes from God

A year ago I was telling readers about the wonders of the Grahamstown Festival and the joy of “finding God in the arts”. After the recent ten-day Durban International Film Festival I again feel moved by the way in which creativity can help us connect with the Creator.

It also looks as if I spend a lot of my time hanging out with arty types and going to festivals—which is true—but in this case the film festival was at least on my doorstep.

In fact, the Denis Hurley Centre (which I serve as its director) was a host venue for four film screenings, so the festival actually crossed over our doorstep.

Let me start by recommending the act of literally going to see a film. I know it costs money and takes effort and you can always watch on TV or a laptop or even your phone. But the problem with doing that is that there is no sense of occasion.

It’s like prayer: a quick prayer said on the go while sitting at your computer can be valuable, but it is not the same as the experience that comes from taking yourself to a building dedicated to the purpose of prayer, surrounded by others who have come for the same reason and being fully present to the liturgy as it unfolds around you and in which you participate.

In the same way, being at the cinema is so much more than just “consuming” a film on your own small screen: you have taken time out of your day and spent some money, your phone is switched off, your attention is focused on the presentation which unfolds at a pace not set by you, and you are sharing the experience, perhaps with friends but certainly also with strangers, all drawn together for the same purpose.

In our busy lives, with so many things to do, we need to make time to do a few things intentionally and intently—praying, being with friends and family, eating, being entertained. We devalue these experiences if we do not set aside time and places for them to be special.

So, having sat down in the cinema, with the lights dimmed and popcorn in my hand, what did I actually see? A fantastic range of features, documentaries and short films from South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, Congo, Brazil, India, Italy, America and Canada. Films that asked interesting questions and sometimes answered them. Should there be mining in Pondoland? What would life be like without music? Is there such a thing as “sounding gay”? Why do we waste so much food?

Films that introduced me to people and situations I would never normally encounter: an Algerian resistance fighter from the 1950s, a world-famous social photographer, a refugee who watched his friends drown around him, a group of young people from different communities singing together in a choir, an Indian hero who tries to help a young Pakistani girl, a mother at her wit’s end with a difficult teenage son.

The point is the infinite variety of experience. One film-maker suggested that when the world confuses us, film can help us to make sense of it. I think the opposite may also be true. Just when we mistakenly think we understand the world, film can remind us that there is so much more world out there—so many different cultures and situations and kinds of people and problems and (possibly) solutions.

Film, like all the arts, should be seen not as a place primarily for seeking answers but rather as a way of asking more and more interesting questions.

As Catholics, we believe that all creativity comes from God who is the ultimate Creator. That is true whether or not the artist acknowledges God, whether or not the subject matter is religious.

Occasionally, some artists abuse that creativity but mostly they use it to inform, to entertain, to excite and to challenge. In other words, they are co-creators with God.

And since we know that God’s creation is infinite in its variety and richness, films are a great way of exploring that infinity: to move beyond our small perspective and to imagine, even if for only 90 minutes, what God’s world looks like from other angles.