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Moonlight Sonata: Deafness In Three Movements, Jeanette Reedy Solano

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements (2019) directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky.

Light From Light, Jeanette Reedy Solano

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Light from LIght (2019) directed by Paul Harrill.

A New Patheon: Artificial Intelligence And "Her", Randall Reed

Journal of Religion & Film

In this essay I will argue that artificial intelligence has significant religious ramifications. The vision of A.I. most often portrayed by both thinkers and film is one which has a majority of characteristics of a monotheistic god, and most often one who is wrathful, punishing, and anti-human. This perspective is inspired by the themes of Christian apocalypticism. I will contrast this with an analysis of the movie Her. I will suggest that Her presents a different vision of the possible future of A.I., one which still involves the creation of divinity, but no longer a singular divinity bent on apocalyptic …

Is Slumdog Millionaire A Retelling Of The Ramayana? (Hindi), William L. Blizek, Michele M. Desmarais

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a Hindi translation of the article that appears in English in this same issue.

Is a banner with a picture of Rama and Sita on it and the word, “Ramayana,” the only link between the film Slumdog Millionaire and the great Hindu epic? In this paper we explore elements in the film that correspond to elements in the Ramayana. There is no one-to-one correlation, and some relationships between the two are, in fact, mirror images. However, there are enough correlations and influences to suggest that the film might be considered a retelling of the Ramayana. We also acknowledge …

Dialectics Of Tradition And Memory In Black Panther, Sailaja Krishnamurti

Journal of Religion & Film

This is one of a series of film reviews of Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler.

Black Panther As Spirit Trip, Laurel Zwissler

Journal of Religion & Film

This is one of a series of film reviews of Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler. This review analyzes engagement with the movie as a religious experience and considers some political implications of both its storyline and reception. In particular, the piece focuses on constructions of race, especially in relationship to Africa and African Americans, as well as practical tensions around commodifying dissent.

Ancestors Change Constantly: Subversive Religious Colonial Deconstruction In The Religion Of Black Panther, Jon Ivan Gill

Journal of Religion & Film

This is one of a series of film reviews of Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler.

Classroom Cannibal: A Guide On How To Teach Ojibwe Spirituality Using The Windigo And Film, Brady Desanti

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper is intended as a pedagogical guide on how to teach elements of Ojibwe religious and philosophical beliefs using the windigo and its depictions in the films Wendigo and Ravenous. The windigo complex is exceedingly complex and remains an enduring component to the cultures of Ojibwe and several other Algonquian-speaking communities in the United States and Canada. While the windigo enjoys exposure in a variety of popular entertainment sources, film remains one of the most useful methods to incorporate in the classroom to help students comprehend how an anthropophagus “monster” directly relates to Ojibwe ideas of personal balance, …

Beast, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Beast (2018), directed by Michael Pearce.

Women Are Speaking Up At Sundance, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

Women speak up at Sundance 2018.

Lazercism, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of LaZercism (2018), dir. Shaka King.

Fixing Ground Zero: Race And Religion In Francis Lawrence’S I Am Legend, Michael E. Heyes

Journal of Religion & Film

Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend is a complex intertext of Matheson’s novel of the same name and its two previous film adaptations. While the film attempts to depict racism as monstrous, the frequent invocation of 9/11 imagery and Christian symbolism throughout the film recodes the vampiric dark-seekers as radical Islamic terrorists. This serves to further enshrine an us/Christians vs. them/Muslim dichotomy present in post-9/11 America, a dichotomy that the film presents as “curable” through the spread of Christianity and the fall of Islam.

Film And Religion: Critical Concepts In Media And Cultural Studies, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of S. Brent Plate, ed. Film and Religion: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge Press, 2017.

Dreams, Doubt, And Dread: The Spiritual In Film, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Zachary Settle and Taylor Worley, eds. Dreams, Doubt, and Dread: The Spiritual in Film. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016.

A Social History Of Iranian Cinema (Farsi Translation), Kristian Petersen

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a Farsi translation of Kristian Petersen's book review of A Social History of Iranian Cinema by Hamid Naficy. The translation was done by Elham Rastegari.

Religion And Violence In Jesse James Films, 1972–2010, Travis Warren Cooper

Journal of Religion & Film

This essay analyzes recent depictions of Jesse James in cinema, examining filmic portrayals of the figure between the years of 1972 and 2010. Working from the intersection of the anthropology of film and religious studies approaches to popular culture, the essay fills significant gaps in the study of James folklore. As no substantial examinations of the religious aspects of the James myths exist, I hone in on the legend’s religiosity as contested in filmic form. Films, including revisionist Westerns, are not unlike oral-history statements recorded and analyzed by anthropologists, folklorists, and ethnographers. Jesse James movies, in other words, have much …

“To See My Home Before I Die”: The Trip To Bountiful, Memento Mori, And The Experience Of Death, Margaret Sullivan

Journal of Religion & Film

This article analyzes the portrayal of death in Peter Masterson’s 1985 film The Trip to Bountiful. My claim is that the experience of death, in the film, functions as a tool both for the elderly main character’s increased self-understanding and for her conscious, ethical action. I enter this discussion through an examination of late deconstruction’s ethical turn and the argument that aporetic unknowing, if experienced and endured, leads to the chance for real, authentic action. I then demonstrate how the film depicts such an aporetic encounter with death, and do so, in large part, by focusing on the film’s final …

Two-Spirit Mexica Youth And Transgender Mixtec/Muxe Media: La Mission (2009), Two Spirit: Injunuity (2013), And Libertad (2015), Gabriel S. Estrada

Journal of Religion & Film

Independent directors Peter Bratt, Adrian Baker, and Avila-Hanna create differing trans-border queer Indigenous media that resist Eurocentric cic-heteropatriarchy. While Bratt’s feature-length narrative film La Mission (2009) features a masculine Mexica gay teenager who survives fused homophobic and trans*-phobic violence, Baker’s short animation Two Spirit: Injunuity (2013) makes stronger trans* and two-spirit Mexica youth identity affirmations. Avila-Hanna’s short documentary Libertad (2015) offers the clearest transgender narrative of the three films as it focuses on a California transgender Mixtec immigrant activist who is coming of age as a woman with the aid of hormones and gender affirming surgery. This article’s trans*- and …

The Crimes Of Love. The (Un)Censored Version Of The Flood Story In Noah (2014), Wojciech Kosior

Journal of Religion & Film

A swift survey of Noah reviews clearly shows that the audience’s sensitivity was challenged in several regards; Noah was portrayed as a “religious extremist” and “borderline psychopath”, the Creator proved to be a “distant—unaware or uncaring—overseer”, while Aronofsky himself was said to have a “sinister purpose of leading people to believe that Christianity and Judaism are something they are not.” On closer examination, however, the above summarized pleas are not entirely relevant for two basic reasons. First, the movie consists of ideas that have been in use since antiquity, rearranged and composed into a new-old story and all the arguments …

The Roles Of Violence In Recent Biblical Cinema: The Passion, Noah, And Exodus: Gods And Kings, Kevin M. Mcgeough

Journal of Religion & Film

When The Passion was released, its extremely graphic violence horrified critics and scholars of religion although its success at the box office indicates that this, if anything, made the story of Jesus more appealing for viewers. Now that more time has passed and expectations surrounding levels of acceptable violence in cinema have changed, it is worth reconsidering how cinematic violence is used as reception strategy in Biblical cinema. Considering The Passion with more recent Biblical films, Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, it becomes apparent that violence is not only used to expand laconic Biblical narratives but to invest …

A Social History Of Iranian Cinema, Kristian Petersen

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 1: The Artisanal Era, 1897-1941 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011); A Social History of Iranian Cinema , Volume 2: The Industrializing Years, 1941-1978 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011); A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 3: The Islamicate Period, 1978-1984 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012); and A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 4: The Globalizing Era, 1984-2010 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), all by Hamid Naficy.

Hollywood Biblical Epics: Camp Spectacle And Queer Style From The Silent Era To The Modern Day, Kent L. Brintnall

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Richard Lindsay, Hollywood Biblical Epics: Camp Spectacle and Queer Style from the Silent Era to the Modern Day (Denver, CO: Praeger, 2015).

An Interview With Agnieszka Smoczynska, Director Of The Lure, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is an interview with Agnieszka Smoczynska, Director of The Lure (2016).

Captain Fantastic, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Captain Fantastic (2015) directed by Matt Ross.

Sonita, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Sonita (2015) directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami.

Brahman Naman, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Brahman Naham (2016) directed by Q.

Embrace The Serpent, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Embrace the Serpent (2015) directed by Ciro Guerra.

Slamdance 2016: Where Film Makes A Statement, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

Introduction to the Slamdance Film Festival 2016.

Sundance 2016: Celebrating The Diversity Of Independent Cinema, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

Introduction to the Sundance Film Festival 2016.

Halal Love (And Sex), Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Halal Love (and Sex) (2015) directed by Assad Fouladkar.