As far as I can tell, I am the only critic at Sundance—and at many festivals I attend—representing a Christian publication. The kind of filmmaking Sundance celebrates—films made without financial backing from a major studio—tends to attract filmmakers with an experimental, edgy sensibility that films like God’s Not Dead, War Room, and Left Behind generally avoid.
Yet there are other Christian critics at the festival—Variety’s chief film critic, Justin Chang, shows up for an interview at Windrider. And a few Christian filmmakers are doing industry-leading work. After the premiere of The Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker, its director, writer, and star, spoke eloquently of his Christian faith and how it leads him to fight for justice. At Sundance, his quest paid off, literally: the film sparked a bidding war and sold to Fox Searchlight for $17.5 million, the highest amount ever paid for a finished film at any festival in history.
Read Full Article »