Things are abuzz in Albany, Georgia - the “Hollywood of the South.”
If you’ve followed Sherwood Pictures’ films over the past six years, you’re likely familiar with their movies - Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. The films are the result of the prayers, dedication, and work of Albany, Georgia-based Sherwood Baptist Church. Proving the Hollywood pundits wrong, each film has done successively better than it’s predecessor. Facing the Giants opened at number eight and grossed $10.3 million. Fireproof opened at number four and grossed $33 million.
I’m in Albany along with nearly a hundred other journalists, bloggers, and ministry partners and leaders for a “media and ministry” junket and set visit for Sherwood’s next film - Courageous. After much prayer and discernment, the church settled on a story following four men in their roles not only as police officers, but also as fathers. It’s set to open in the early fall of 2011. The filmmakers are about half-way through a 35-day shooting schedule. It’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement of what Sherwood is doing and the potential impact that it will have on families.
Catholic organizations, such as Retrouvaille, Marriage Encounter, and Diocesan Marriage and Family Life offices partnered with, and supported, Fireproof because of its pro-marriage message. It’s expected that Catholic men’s initiatives will do the same with Courageous because of its themes of supporting the family and encouraging men to take responsibility as fathers.
Tonight, I was able to sit down with Sherwood pastor Michael Catt and the film’s writer, Stephen Kendrick to talk to them about their latest production. To view a video of my interview, visit Kenneth Henderson’s web site, True Knights. It will be posted later in the week.
Pastor Catt explained why Sherwood Church decided to embark on movie-making.
“Through surveys we could see the waning influence of the church,” said Catt. “We realized that we have a generation that is influenced more by media than by the church and its pastors. We decided that we weren’t going to give the devil our children and grandchildren by default.”
“Like the sculptures and stained glass and Cathedrals of Europe, the illiterate can be told stories through art,” said Catt. “Movies are the stained glass pictures of the 21st century.”
“Once we made the decision to make Flywheel, I made an announcement at church, and we were able to raise $20,000 to make our first film,” explained Catt. Facing the Giants cost $100,000. Fireproof had a shooting budget of $500,000, but with post-production costs ended up costing about $1 million. Courageous has a shooting budget of about $1 million.
Criticized by some as not being “high art” or as proselytizing, Catt had this to say about Sherwood’s films.
“Every movie has an agenda,” said Catt. “Why is it that people think Christians shouldn’t, but everyone else should? That’s who we are as believers. We’ve found an answer to sin and there’s a hope in our life - Jesus Christ. We portray that without preaching to the camera.”
“Christians have been characterized in movies,” added Catt. “We’re always being slammed or portrayed as sleazy. That’s not a picture of the average person living in the pew. The reason our films have been successful is that people connect with the people in these movies. They say, ‘That’s like my community.’”
“I’ll be honest,” admitted Catt. “We’re not that good, but our God is.”
Courageous focuses on the role of fatherhood. Writer Stephen Kendrick said that because of that it’s going to be controversial.
“We’re calling men to a higher standard,” said Kendrick. “Some men will get mad. For others, it will be inspiring. Fatherhood resonates with all classes and cultures. In Courageous, men will see on-screen examples of fatherhood, while also learning that God needs to be their father.”
Stay tuned… On Tuesday, I’ll get an early view of some clips from the film. Not only will we be on set for a couple of different shoots, but I also have the opportunity to appear as an extra during a funeral scene for the film.http://www.ncregister.com/images/uploads/IMG_2631v2.jpg
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Curious, as someone who lived in Albany for two years in the mid-90s ... any reason you refer to “Sherwood Church” rather than “Sherwood Baptist Church.”
Can’t wait to see it!
I’m a huge fan of “Facing the Giants,” and “Fireproof!”
Great! Thanks for writing on this - I have really enjoyed all of the films they have made so far - looking forward to this one.
Those great-filmmaking Kendricks are at it again! I LOVED LOVED LOVED Facing the Giants, full of action, believable story, palpable drama and good tech work which made up for the subh par acting. Fireproof…...stuck out majorly, however. The graphics and visual effects might have been 100% better than “Giants” and the acting was much better, however, the morals and overall story was bland and quite…..feminist. Overall, the negatives outweigh the positives so i hope Courageous will shine through and be their best…..
If I never see “Fireproof” again, it will be too soon (unless Rifftrax ever releases a riff for it. It’d watch that). I agree that we need more films with solid moral worldviews, but “Fireproof” was a good example of how NOT to make such a film if you intend anyone who doesn’t always agree with the worldview presented to watch it (the whole didactic “preaching to the choir” syndrome). Plus, the acting was excruciatingly bad. Some of those in-jokes may have been funny to other members of the SBC (“OMG! I totally can’t believe you danced like that in that movie!!!”) but to the rest of us in the audience it was like having knitting needles shoved into our eyes. And seriously, what was up with Kirk Cameron’s dad… was he supposed to be acting like he was stoned the whole time or what? I didn’t get that at all.
In terms of films with a solid moral worldview which might actually encourage men grow up and own up to their decisions, “Knocked Up” was FAR more effective (and funny, and well-written, and better acted… etc.).
Regarding how Sherwood Baptist is referenced, the outside P.R. firm behind the movies refer to it as “Sherwood Church” in all their materials, supposedly to make it more appealing to all denominations and all Christians. If you’ve never been to the church building and are only reading the materials, you wouldn’t even know the name “Baptist” is in the name.
Fireproof had a very good message about marriage but I do agree with some of the comments that some of the acting do need polishing. My husband and I have both noticed a lack of a pro-life angle in the story. Most(if not all) the parents there only had one child. The lead characters didn’t have a child even after seven years of marriage and neither did their friend, Michael and his wife. It was successful in stressing the importance of one end of marriage, the bonum conjugum (the well-being of the spouses) but not the bonum prolis (the procreation and education of offspring), the latter being a very important ingredient in keeping a marriage together.
I think Other Victor is a bit harder on FIREPROOF than he need to be (here is my review: http://vjmorton.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/heres-pat/), though I agree that KNOCKED UP is a far better film by every measure, including morally.
Hope is obligatory in criticism. But sniffing around the COURAGEOUS site, I get the distinct sense that we should just expect more of the same from the Kendricks and Sherwood Baptist. They make what they want and have been successful (monetarily and by their spiritual lights) doing it.
Having not seen “Knocked Up” and not sure I ever will as the trailers alone made me cringe. However, “Fireproof” was a great family film which “Knocked Up” can never be and is not intended to be.
Sure, the acting was not Hollywood but that also was not the distraction some feel it was. I felt I was watching someone’s home movies over how their marriage was lousy and got better. This was a movie I let everyone in the family watch from 10 on up and they all liked it. Loved it? No. But, in a day when you struggle to find movies for a pizza night with your kids I am glad these movies are out there.
I really like (love) movies and while Fireproof was not perfect and while you may not have thought the acting was great, it was also never objectionable, offensive or demeaning to anyone watching it. Something I am sure “Knocked Up” cannot say for itself.
I’m reluctant to respond, partially because it’s veering off-topic and there was a similar discussion at Steve Greydanus’s recently.
But in one sentence—a work of art is not its subject matter, but how it is about its subject matter.
Yeah, and maybe I’m being too hard on “Fireproof.” If people got something out of it, more power to them. For better or for worse, my cynicism demands a certain degree of sophistication and polish from my movies—not that “Knocked Up” was sophisticated at all, and yeah, it’s definitely not for everyone, but it was infinitely more HUMAN than “Fireproof” which seemed a whole heckuva lot more like a medieval morality play than anything that’s come out of Hollywood in the past 110 years. Honestly: Buster Keaton’s “The General” has infintiely more human sentiment (emotion, humor, pathos, etc.) in it than “Fireproof”.
As for “Fireproof”, I wouldn’t say it is a good family movie. I can’t imagine our boys sitting through more than five minutes of it before they got so sick of it that they trashed our family room. We got a lot more mileage out of the 1973 feature “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” which also features a strong moral message (“Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel!”).
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