Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Life In The Multiverse: Bringing Chaos Out Of Order?, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper was given as the opening keynote address at the International Conference on Religion and Film at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on June 8, 2022, and is here presented in that form.

My thanks go to those who organized the conference for Vrije Universiteit, notably Professor Johan Roeland and Miranda van Holland.

New Approaches To Islam In Film, Sophia Rose Arjana

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Kristian Petersen, ed., New Approaches to Islam in Film (New York: Routledge, 2021).

Giving The Devil His Due: Satan And Cinema, Brandon R. Grafius

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock and Regina M. Hansen, eds., Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and Cinema (New York: Fordham University Press, 2021).

Deities & Devotees: Cinema, Religion, And Politics In South India, Rebecca Peters

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Uma Maheswari Bhrugubanda, Deities & Devotees: Cinema, Religion, and Politics in South India (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Bollywood Horrors: Religion, Violence And Cinematic Fears In India, Sen Meheli

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Ellen Goldberg, Aditi Sen, and Brian Collins, eds., Bollywood Horrors: Religion, Violence and Cinematic Fears in India (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).

Refocus: The Films Of Paul Schrader, Elijah Siegler

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Michelle E. Moore and Brian Brems, editors, ReFocus: The Films of Paul Schrader (Edinburgh University Press: 2020).

Religion And Film: Representation, Experience, Meaning, Sérgio Dias Branco

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Stefanie Knauss, Religion and Film: Representation, Experience, Meaning (Brill, 2020).

Indonesian Cinema After The New Order: Going Mainstream, Ahmad Nuril Huda

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Thomas Barker, Indonesian Cinema after the New Order: Going Mainstream (Hong Kong University Press, 2020).

The Bible As Relic, Fetish Or Talisman In Nollywood Films: A Semiotic Perspective, Floribert Patrick C. Endong

Journal of Religion & Film

Many Nollywood Christian films tap into a plurality of myths and idiosyncrasies prevailing in Nigeria in particular and the Christendom in general. Some of these myths and idiosyncrasies revolve around the perceived magical powers of the Bible, particularly the Holy Book’s ability to neutralize or prevent the designs of paranormal and satanic entities. In line with such Christian myths, many Nollywood Christianity-based films deploy various typologies of artifacts, signs and special effects to represent the Bible as an object which is more than a mere carrier of holy scriptures and the voice of God. In this paper, attention is given …

Transforming Leviathan: Job, Hobbes, Zvyagintsev And Philosophical Progression, Graham C. Goff

Journal of Religion & Film

The allegory of Leviathan, the biblical serpent of the seas, has undergone numerous distinct and even antithetical conceptions since its origin in the book of Job. Most prominently, Leviathan was the namesake of Thomas Hobbes’s 1651 political treatise and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s 2014 film of the same name, a damning indictment of Russian corruption. These three iterations underscore the societal transition from the recognition of power as being derived from God to the secularization of power in Hobbes’s philosophy, to the negation of the legitimacy of divine and secular institutional power, in Zvyagintsev’s controversial film. This examination of Leviathan’s three unique …

Seeing And Interpreting Visions Of The Next Age In Interstellar, Nancy Wright

Journal of Religion & Film

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) uses multiple styles of cinematography – documentary, painterly and expressionistic – to guide interpretation of its apocalyptic review of history. Within the prologue and epilogue of the science fiction film, clips from interviews originally filmed for Ken Burns’s The Dust Bowl (2012) invite questions about how to interpret documentary, revisionist and eschatological reviews of history. Cinematography functions as a self-reflexive cue to spectators within and outside the mise-en-scène to engage in eschatological interpretation. The representation of spectatorship and vision reveals the challenge of interpreting prophetic visions of the last things and the next age, which are …

Gender, Race, And Religion In An African Enlightenment, Jonathan D. Lyonhart

Journal of Religion & Film

Black Panther (2018) not only heralded a new future for representation in big-budget films but also gave an alternative vision of the past, one which recasts the Enlightenment within an African context. By going through its technological enlightenment in isolation from Western ideals and dominance, Wakanda opens a space for reflecting on alternate ways progress can—and still might—unfold. More specifically, this alternative history creates room for reimagining how modernity—with its myriad social, scientific, and religious paradigm shifts—could have negotiated questions of race, and, in turn, how race could have informed and redirected some of the lesser impulses of modernity. Similar …

Maika, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Maika (2022), directed by Ham Tran.

Maidenhood, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Maidenhood (2022) directed by Xóchitl Enríquez Mendoza.

Iron Family, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Iron Family (2021), directed by Patrick Longstreth.

Goodbye Jerome!, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Goodbye Jerome! (2022), directed by Gabrielle Selnet, Adam Sillard, and Chloé Farr.

Forget Me Not, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Forget Me Not (2021), directed by Olivier Bernier.

Oldboy's Apples, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Oldboy's Apples (2022), directed by Brad Hock.

A Table Is As Good As Nine Lives, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, A Table Is as Good as Nine Lives (2022), directed by Christina Leonardi.

In The Jam Jar, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of In the Jam Jar (2022), directed by Colin Nixon.

Return Of The Action Man, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Return of the Action Man (2022), directed by Scott Peters.

The Multi, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Multi (2022), directed by Storm S. Smith and Mikhail Chowdhury.

After Yang, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of After Yang (2021), directed by Kogonada.

Huella, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Huella (2022), directed by Gabriela Ortega.

I'M Here, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of I'm Here (2020), directed by Julia Orlik.

Gladiolus, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Gladiolus (2022), directed by Azadeh Navai.

Be Right Back, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Be Right Back (2022), directed by Frauke Havemann.

Killing The Eunuch Khan, Sheila J. Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Killing the Eunuch KHAN (2022), directed by Abed Abest.

Somebody Take The Wheel, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Somebody Take the Wheel (2022), directed by Kenzie Sutton.

Ultrainocencia, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Ultrainocencia (2020), directed by Manuel Ariza.