GREG KING
Director Greg King presented the first film at the festival, “Our House.”
-What is your tie to Biola?
I know Jack Hafer who runs the film department. He was the executive producer on a film that I worked on last year called “Not That Funny” the director Lauralee Farrer directed, but at the same time I know Dave Callas who teaches in the visual arts department.
-How do you integrate your faith in your field of work?
When I was a visual artist, I specifically looked for images and symbols that related directly to my faith. Either they were expressions of the Spirit or of Christ himself, or a certain aspect of the Christian worldview I was trying to create visual languages and metaphors for that. I’m also comfortable doing more abstract work — like doing music — and things that aren’t directly connected to my faith, but where my spiritual beliefs inform them because I am interested in finding the beautiful in life. Or even just portraying something like a warehouse, like in my film, “Our House.” This warehouse was very beautiful, and to me that was just an expression of God, of how diverse God’s grace and beauty is in the world, it isn’t just one thing or how we may typically perceive it. That can very much directly relate to my faith in that I feel like as a Christian we are living out a story of hope, we are not living out a story that ends in destruction and death. So, that infuses my work and I want the world to engage people’s sense of beauty and hope.
-How does the idea of searching for sanctuary play into the role of film?
I like to explore space, or the urban environment, and play with light and shape. I’m not necessarily thinking in terms of sanctuary. But, actually that word has applied to some of my paintings where I’ve been interested in architecture and a sense of light and space that is inviting that is a place of rest. In the films, it’s exploring space and engaging the imagination, engaging the mind in a way that is conducive to prayer or the Holy Spirit to guide you. I’m really interested in work that is meditative. We wanted there to be moments in the film, “Our House,” where you rest from what was being said, so you could digest what you just heard, and sort of experience this certain quality of light and space that was there.
-Do you see God in your work?
I definitely see God in how he has led me to certain situations and places. Now, I don’t particularly think he guides my hand as I make a painting, but I’ve felt the Holy Spirit in the room when I’ve made a painting before, or worked on something. I’ve felt affirmed, and those have been very wonderful emotionally rich once in a lifetime moments where I feel my calling as an artist has been affirmed. I think that God also gives us plenty room to play around and experiment and fail, or succeed, or whatever.
JOSH and REBEKAH WEIGEL
Continuing at the film festival, short films directors Josh and Rebekah Weigel presented “The Butterfly Circus.”
-What is your tie to Biola, how did you hear about Biola?
We don’t really have a specific tie to Biola, there is one guy, Mark Aderbury, who was an actor in one of our films. We’ve been contacted by a lot of students at Biola that have wanted to work with us on the feature and stuff, so we were interested in it because of that. Also, we wanted to meet some great up-and-coming filmmakers that we could work with.
-What are you looking to get out of this film festival?
I would hope people were inspired and if they were struggling or discouraged, that they came out feeling more hopeful. That would be our hope and our desire.
-How does the idea of searching for sanctuary play into the role of film?
In our film I think that the circus really represented a place of sanctuary, a place where people are valued and the potential that’s in each person is seen and encouraged; because we really believe that each person has potential and every person has value but we don’t always feel that, and sometimes we need others to pull that out of us and encourage us.
-Do you see God in your work?
It’s a bit of a tough question, but our desire is to make films that really embody God’s heart of love and how much he cares for people and sees their worth. So hopefully that’s what people come away with from watching our films.
ALRICK BROWN
The final film, “Kinyarwanda,” won the 2011 Sundance film festival and was presented by Director Alrick Brown.
-What is your tie to Biola?
Well I met a few professors and students at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.
-How do you like it here at Biola?
Biola’s really cool so far, very meditative, a very chill environment. I got a chance to sit down and do a little round table discussion with some of the students last night. It was pretty inspiring even from my perspective. There was like a lot of love and a lot of really open minds and hearts. It was cool.
-What are you looking to get out of this film festival?
This film is about forgiveness. It’s about faith, it’s about love, it’s about hope, and we are kind of living in a world where vengeance and things opposite of faith, hope and love are almost paramount in a lot of the things that we do. So almost every screening we have there is a hope to have a really nice dialogue to kind of infuse into people’s minds and hearts the power of forgiveness. It won Sundance and it’s a beautiful independent film, but we don’t have any major stars. It’s set and shot in Africa, so it’s a tough film to sell in the traditional Hollywood model. So hopefully the students here connect to it, and hopefully they spread the word and share the message of it then we will get to reach more and more people.
-How does the idea of searching for sanctuary play into the role of film?
The entire film is about sanctuary. That’s the irony of everything. It seems to be synergistic — everything is falling into place. Our film takes place during the Rwandan genocide, but we take a different approach to it. We take real stories from real people, and the genocide is a backdrop to people’s stories of love and faith and life and forgiveness, and you can see perspectives that you haven’t seen in a lot of other films. All of our characters end up seeking sanctuary in the same place, and this happens to be a mosque. In that mosque Christians and Muslims and people of all faiths and backgrounds come together, and protect each other and work together, so the film is literally the epitome of sanctuary. Coincidentally beautiful.
-Do you see God in your work?
I’m always trying to find truth, I’m always trying to find humanity in people, and the love — that least common denominator that binds us all — as opposed to the things that separate us all. I start to realize how things work out, and them working out having nothing to do with me. I think that people who don’t accept that or don’t acknowledge that are doing themselves a disservice as artists because you don’t have complete control, and you can’t. I’ve been blessed along the way, and I think it’s because I’ve tried to do good, and you know good comes back as well. In this film we don’t take sides on religion, I have friends who believe in that, they believe in this, they hate this, they hate that, they don’t like religion, but they like the Jedi and the force, its such a bizarre thing, so what I say is believe in something, and believe in something that is going to make the world a better place. I cannot take credit for all of this work.
