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| 25 2 Evangelical Film Auteurs At the outset of the 1940s, a trinity of undaunted filmmakers would spark the eruption of the Christian film industry, fulfilling what they saw as their roles in the Great Commission, the call to go, teach, and make disciples of all men and women. James Friedrich, Carlos Baptista, and Irwin Moon would each, in their own peculiar way, adapt the marvels of filmmaking to tell biblical stories, call for personal responses, and reveal the wonders of God’s creation. Their celluloid sermons would, respectively, hark back to rhetorical modes of Gospel stories, evangelistic appeals for repentance, and Psalm-like reflections on the glory of God’s creation. The Vision of Rev. James K. Friedrich A 1937 senior thesis at Virginia Theological Seminary launched a vision of Christian filmmaking from one of the most enduring and engaging personalities in the industry. Despite the problems of the Depression years, James (Jim) Kempe Friedrich had been a successful young businessman working for his father, a wholesale grocer in Red Wing, Minnesota, and was recognized for natural talents of creativity, persistence, and persuasive sales techniques . But while attending the University of Minnesota, two changes interrupted his career: a new Episcopal rector, Rev. Earle Jewell, introduced him to the Christian life, and the movie bug bit him. For a brief time he took to the road hawking cameras for Bell and Howell, and he then tried, unsuccessfully , to work as an extra in Hollywood. In 1933, he enrolled at the Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.1 Friedrich recalled the Sunday school days of his youth where “flip” charts, glass slides, stereopticon projectors, and chalk-drawn maps on blackboards had been used to tell biblical stories. In his percolating imagination, he dreamed of translating the stories of Daniel, Samson, David and Goliath, and Jesus onto the silver screen.2 He acknowledged that his “strange idea” certainly was not one that promised much profit. In his seminary studies, Fried- 26 | Evangelical Film Auteurs The challenge of churches embracing films was complicated by three pressing problems: First, there were few suitable films to be shown. Second, very few churches possessed sound 16mm film projectors for exhibition. Finally, widespread opposition to Hollywood simmered among numerous conservative Christian leaders. Yet several religious periodicals, notably the Christian Advocate, discerned a change of cultural climate in the late 1930s, especially in the cheerful and original talent of this newly graduated seminarian . Friedrich shared that “we can reach the largest number of people through motion pictures. It is the easiest and most influential medium today. There is a psychological effect, too, because when a person is absorbed in a story and sitting in a dark theater where he can let his emotions go without being observed, he is more deeply stirred than ordinarily.”8 Many religious leaders came to agree that film exhibition would benefit their ministries, but they also believed that it was not a feasible route to pursue as few churches possessed the necessary equipment. Friedrich recognized that virtually every city in the country had a movie theater and projector and so modified his plan to make a biblical feature film rather than a short film on Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan. But studio heads politely passed on his proposal, acknowledging that while DeMille’s King of Kings had been a box office success, it was only a novelty. Stemming from the question “How can I make the Holy Scriptures a living experience for others?” Friedrich decided to spend an inheritance of $100,000 by investing it in a nonprofit motion picture company through rich concentrated on the life of Saint Paul when he “suddenly realized what possibilities for a motion picture lay hidden in that dramatic character.”3 He was convinced that film heralded “the most potent thing that man has yet created for getting ideas across.”4 Finding dramatic raw material in the book of Acts, he wrote his senior thesis on the adventures and journeys of Paul in the format of a screenplay. He confessed that they weren’t very good scripts, but “his professors didn’t know anything about scriptwriting either,” so he passed.5 When Friedrich finished his seminary training in 1938, now Rev. James K. Friedrich, he traveled to denomination boards and national conferences seeking religious education leaders with whom to share his vision for showing the Gospel message on 16mm film.6 For Friedrich, his calling was clear: “What they see impresses people more than...

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