ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

death

Last Flight Home – Beautiful death

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Death comes to us all throughout our lives. It can be frightening. It can be a time of sharing love. It can also be one of the most intimate times in people’s lives. In Last Flight Home, documentarian Ondi Timoner turns her camera on her family during the final days of her father Eli’s life. In doing so, she takes us on a journey that is filled with love, sorrow, joy, courage, pain, humor, memories, and spiritual insight and renewal.

Eli Timoner led a life that had many ups and downs. He started Florida Air, which at the time was the fastest growing airline in the country. He was a great success story. He was a philanthropist who served on various charitable boards. But a stroke ended all that. His debts grew. He was barely able to provide for his family. In the years that followed he and his wife led a simple life, but often complicated by his health. They raised three children in a home that was filled with love.

Most of the film takes place during the last fifteen days of Eli’s life. After decades of being disabled from a stroke and now suffering from COPD and congestive heart disease, he can no longer even get out of bed. He has decided, as is legal in California, to end his life. His family supports his decision, not because they want him to die, but because it gives him control over his dying. The process takes fifteen days and various steps that must be followed.

The fifteen days become a true blessing for Eli and his family. He gets a chance to visit via computer with many friends from his past. His children and grandchildren get to spend these days sharing the love that bound them to one another. He even got to work with his children to write his obituary the way he wanted to be remembered.

This is not a morbid or dark film. Ondi Timoner wasn’t planning on making a movie about death. She just wanted to capture as much of her father and family as she could. So it becomes a very intimate and spiritual time—as such times are within families.

The spiritual aspect is inherent in discussions about death and what may be beyond. But in the film, this is boosted by the presence of Eli’s daughter Rachel, who is a rabbi. In what was, for me, one of the most powerful scenes in the film. Rachel, who struggles to be in dual role of daughter and rabbi, leads her father through a ritual that allows him to release the feelings of guilt or shame that he has held onto through all his years and to forgive himself.

At the end of the film, we hear a bit of Rachel’s Yom Kippur sermon to her congregation. She makes use of that experience with her father to encourage her listeners to live in such a way that death’s reality opens them to the same kind of release and forgiveness each day.

The Timonen family has given us a great blessing by sharing themselves with the world in such a vulnerable and intimate setting. In many ways, Last Flight Home is Eli’s final gift that he had to share.

Defining Moments – It’s about life.

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Stephen Wallis’s Defining Moments is a collection of intersecting stories about people who are facing those times in their lives that could well change everything. This is a light-hearted film that at times seems a bit ludicrous, but within that there are morsels of wisdom and understanding.

We meet Marina (Polly Shannon) who has returned home to visit her father Chester (Burt Reynolds, in his final role). Chester declares that he’ll be dead in nine months. He feels he’s lived enough. He wants to spend the time saying goodbye. Jack (Shawn Roberts) blurts out something stupid that makes his girlfriend Terri (Kelly Van de Burg) doubt their future together. Laurel (Tammy Blanchard) is facing an unexpected late life pregnancy and the discovery that her doctor father (Eric Peterson) is showing signs of Alzheimer’s. And Dave (Dillon Casey) is hospitalized after shooting his ear off in his (about) 30th suicide attempt.

The story weaves through ten of chapters (with titles like “A Moment of Clarity”, “A Moment of Change”, A Moment of Gratitude”, or “A Moment of Truth”. Little by little the people involved must face their issues in search of that moment that will change their lives forever.

The film uses a lot of license in its portrayal of these lives. Much of it just isn’t all that realistic. However, at its core the film is about the relationships between people and how those relationships and the way we build them form our lives.

The film opens and closes with voice over monologs that focus on a cemetery. That brings to mind the assurance that we all face death. But the opening voice over as it ponders the thousand of people buried in the cemetery: “How many people are still remembered? I mean at what point does that last memory of you disappear?” That calls to mind a comment from Ecclesiastes: (For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten.” (Eccl. 2:16 NRSV) Yet mortality is not the point of the film. It notes that we all die, but also that we all live. And it is that living that is important.

Defining Moments is in theaters and available of VOD.

To see our interview with Stephen Wallis and Eric Peterson on YouTube, click here. To stream audio from the interview, click here.

Photos courtesy of VMI Worldwide.

Two Gods – Who Will You Follow?

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“Surely we belong to God and to Him we shall return.”

In Zeshawn Ali’s Two Gods we see the struggles of people dealing with violence in their lives and neighborhoods. The documentary set mostly in Newark, New Jersey, focuses on Hanif, a Muslim casket maker and ritual body washer. Hanif knows the dangers of the streets. He ended up in prison at one point. He seems to have found meaning in his work. He approaches it with respect for the dead.

Hanif has taken two young men under his wing to try to mentor them into adulthood. Furquan is twelve years old, and comes from a violent home. Naz is seventeen and getting involved with dangerous activity, which eventually results in his arrest on very serious charges.

The back and white cinematography creates a stark world where violence is a constant presence. From time to time we encounter not only funerals, but the community workers who are trying to end the large number of violent deaths among young people. It is this that Hanif is trying to protect Naz and Furquan from.

It is important to note that Hanif is a religious man. He is frequently wearing t-shirts that say “Pray”. We see him in the mosque praying. And his approach to the bodies he prepares for burial is a form of religious observance. He feels blessed to be able to care for these bodies. Naz speak a bit about religion, but it doesn’t seem to be important to him. Furquan in time finds himself in his aunt’s home in North Carolina and being part of a Christian church there.

The filmmaker’s view is that all three of these men are struggling between the worship of God and of the streets. That is a fair description of what many people deal with each day. It doesn’t necessarily have to mean choosing God or violence. It can be about anything that draws us away from God. It could be money, sex, fame, drugs, success, or power. Those things can be a part of life, but when they dominate, they can become a different god to us.

Ali wants to show American Muslims as a part of our societal fabric. He does not make a case that Muslims are better than others or that Islam is superior, but he does want us to understand that we all share a common humanity. Indeed, he seems just as happy for Furquan finding a place in a Christian community as he with Hanif in his practice of Islam.

Two Gods is available in theaters and virtual cinema. It is coming soon to PBS’s “Independent Lens” series.

Photos by Zeshawn Ali.

You Will Die at Twenty: How to Live

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You Will Die at Twenty is Sudan’s first ever submission for Best International Film Oscar consideration, and only the eighth fiction feature film made in the country. It offers us a chance to consider the ways fear of death may strip us of the joys of life.

When Muzamil was born, his parents took him to the local Sufi holy man for a blessing. Instead, it was prophesized that he would die when he turned twenty. This is announced as God’s command. The thought is too much for his father, who leaves their village, ostensibly to find work, but he is gone for many years. As a child, his mother is overprotective, until the local imam convinces her the boy needs to learn the Quran. And he does learn it, memorizing it in two different reading styles.

But his twentieth birthday is looming. His mother and other women are busy preparing the incense for his burial. He is reluctant to allow a romantic relationship grow with a village girl, because he knows his life is ending. It is of interest that no one ever doubts the prophecy. Everyone accepts that Muzamil is a doomed young man.

Sulaiman, an older man who left the village years ago, has returned. He is looked at as a reprobate. He has traveled the world as a photographer. He has stills and motion pictures that show Muzamil the world outside the village. Sulaiman seems to be the only person around who does not accept the premise that Muzamil is, as Sulaiman puts it, “the walking dead”. He encourages Muzamil to live, even to sin, so that his life, even if short, will be meaningful.

This is a story of a life that is held hostage by the specter of death. His mother literally counts the days. Muzamil never tries to envision a future, because he has been told he has none. Because of this he cannot allow himself to love or to hope. The prophecy has actually stripped him of the freedom of life. Sulaiman asks him to imagine another world—not just one far away, but one in which his death is not a given.

In press notes, Director Amjad Abu Alala relates the way this reflects Sudan under the dictatorship of Omar el-Bashir. He says, “The Sudanese government used Islam to shut everyone’s mouth—when you say “God says” nobody talks any more.” For the Sudanese in a post el-Bashir world, this film is a call to live freely. And it should be noted that the invocation of God is used by many who wish to end conversation.

I also think that the film speaks to more universal themes. Certainly there is a sense in which knowing that we are mortal makes us reflect on life. For Christians, that is a message we receive each year when we receive ashes on our foreheads. Knowing that death awaits us all can be paralyzing for some, but for others it reminds us of the importance of each day. Death may be a reality we must all face, but life is also a reality that we are called to embrace.

You Will Die at Twenty is available on virtual cinema through local theaters.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

Wander Darkly – Therapy of Memory

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Wander Darkly, from writer-director Tara Miele, is the story of a relationship. It is told in a unusual manner that some viewers may find difficult, but if you stick with it, it will reward you.

Adrienne (Sienna Miller) and Matteo (Diego Luna) have recently bought a house and had a child, but their relationship is somewhat rocky. On a turbulent date night, there is a terrible accident. In the aftermath of that event, the couple struggles to understand why they were together. But the journey to their understanding is a very twisty and strenuous road.

It begins in the ER after the accident. Adrienne has an out of body experience, seeing her body on a gurney and wheeled into the morgue. She wanders into different scenes and settings. When she eventually reconnects with Matteo, he assures her she is alive. They have a child. Everything is real. They begin to visit their memories of their relationship. The first, which sets the tone for all the rest is right after their baby was born. To talk about trauma is to begin to understand it, so Adrienne tells her newborn about the trauma involved in the birth. As the film plays out, Adrienne and Matteo work through the trauma they have experienced by talking about their past.

There is a meta quality to their memories. As they experience the events of their past, they discuss what happened and their feelings as they are remembering it. They are not only reliving events; they are simultaneously looking back at them from the present. As they go from good memories to bad and back to current day, we see the kinds of things that make up a relationship. We see the times of joy and the times of hardship.

Just before the accident, the two are wondering why they are still together. As we see their life together to this point, we come to realize why they connected, and also why they drifted apart. And in the end, we see how they will be connected in the days and years ahead.

The structure of the film, with the questions of whether the characters are alive or not, borders on the horror genre and often seems like a psychological thriller, but at its heart this is a love story. Through Matteo and Adrienne’s relived memories, we see what it is that makes up the love that they share. Although there are some things that will never be healed, because they have undergone this period of memory, talking, experiencing each other as they had before, the love they held is transformed into something even more lasting.

Wander Darkly is available in select theaters, on virtual cinema through local arthouses, and on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate.

That Good Night – To Rage or Not To Rage

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“Are you sorry you woke up?”

What makes it worth living for another day, or two, or a few months? In Eric Styles’s film That Good Night, based on a play by N.J. Crisp, that becomes the real question, not just to be or not to be. Ralph (the late John Herd in his final film) is an aging famous screenwriter. He knows his death is coming soon, but keeps that information from his younger wife Anna (Sofia Helin). As he gets his affairs in order, he demands his estranged son come to visit “before Sunday”.  He also makes an appointment with The Society to send a representative. Ralph’s goal is to have a reconciliation with his son, and to avoid being a burden to his wife in his final days.

When his son Michael (Max Brown) arrives with his girlfriend Cassie (Erin Richards), Ralph is amazingly rude, eventually pushing Michael and Cassie to leave with nothing resolved. Ralph has never had a real relationship with Michael. We learn that Ralph wanted Michael’s mother to abort him. Ralph never saw the child until he was five years old, and rarely after that. Even as an adult, and himself a successful screenwriter, Michael has conflicted feelings towards his father.

After Michael’s departure, while Ralph is at home alone, The Visitor (Charles Dance), dressed in white, arrives from The Society. He and Ralph talk, in a pseudo-hypothetical fashion about euthanasia. Ralph is ready to end it all. The Visitor suggests waiting and counseling. But Ralph insists. The Visitor provides a shot that Ralph things will bring death. When that is not the case, Ralph has a second chance at making things right in his life. He discovers that there may be things yet to come that are worth the suffering that his final months will bring.

You might note that the title is a phrase from a famous poem by Dylan Thomas, which deals with facing death. That poem comes up twice in the film. The first is during Ralph’s first conversation with The Visitor. At that time Ralph says that Thomas, who was less that forty when he died, didn’t have an understanding of the real nature of impending death. The idea of “raging against the dying of the light” is a young man’s idea. The entire poem is read in voice over at the end of the film, now with a different emotional context.

The relationship between Ralph, Anna, Michael and Cassie provide the narrative and emotional structure of the film. The conversations that Ralph has with The Visitor are the intellectual content of the film. Those conversations, ostensibly about euthanasia, are much more centered on life than death. Even when talking about life after death, The Visitor notes that he knows that he doesn’t know. What matters is not the beyond, but the now. We sense that The Visitor is not just a local representative of a euthanasia group. He speaks of being interested in ending the suffering that people go through, but he is also very cognizant of the suffering of everyone involved in Ralph’s life. The Visitor tries to encourage Ralph to see the things that could be worthwhile, even in his final months. His return visits always give Ralph a vision of what could still lie ahead.

A key pair of scenes that occur simultaneously, are of Anna attending Mass in town while Ralph and The Visitor discuss Ralph’s desire to die. Just as Anna receives the Body during the Eucharist, The Visitor gives Ralph the injection Ralph thinks is his death. It turns out that, like the eucharist, the injection becomes both a symbol of death, and an entry into new life. It provides, in a sense, resurrection for Ralph. Resurrection is always about new possibilities.

That Good Night is available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Trinity Creative Partnership and GSP Studios.

Super Bowl, Kobe Bryant: Questions & Reflections

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your sunday drive podcast

Should Christians “celebrate” secular “holidays” like the Super Bowl? What risks and opportunities are there when we participate in such cultural events?

How can we respond to the sudden death of a celebrity like Kobe Bryant? Can we find context and insight and comfort from the Bible at times like this?

Reflections on these and other questions in Your Sunday Drive Podcast Season 2, Episode 2.

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Hosts: Matt Hill and Nate Polzin. Presented by the Church in Drive of Saginaw, MI, as often as possible. Please visit churchindrive.com and facebook.com/thechurchindrive



The Long Road Home Ep. 4 – Faith in Uncertainty

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(Photo: National Geographic/Van Redin)

The situation in Sadr City wasn’t getting any better for the soldiers depicted in National Geographic’s The Long Road Home (Tuesdays 10 PM/9 PM CT and on demand).  In fact, it was getting significantly worse. All three platoons had come under heavy fire and numerous men have been injured or killed.  What do you do when the threat of death is pervasive in the air?

The fourth episode focused on Staff Sgt. Robert Miltenberger (Jeremy Sisto), who was called back to duty beyond his contract date (known as stop-lossing). He was portrayed in the earlier programs as a calm veteran who seems to have a laissez-faire attitude about the whole concept of war. In fact, that was far from the truth.  Miltenberger was on duty in Kosovo during an earlier tour of duty and watched helplessly as a woman carrying her dead baby walked directly towards him, then headed into a live minefield.  As a result, he had numerous dreams about the lady and developed a fatalistic outlook on the whole mission, even going so far as to write a letter his wife was supposed to find after he died in battle.

Miltenberger’s brigade in Iraq was dealing with numerous issues—notably driving into the middle of a city under attack with an unarmored vehicle and no radio communication (big no-nos). He sensed an ambush and got the squadron out of certain death, only to have the truck’s radiator crack a short while later.  While attempting a patch, he saw a group of unarmed residents—one who looked eerily like the lady he saw in Kosovo.  Was this a premonition of something?

As for the original platoon, led by Lt. Shane Aguero (EJ Bonilla), they were still hunkered down, but the militia against them was slowly closing in.  The soldiers were running out of ammunition and had no night vision gear as the sun slowly set.  You could sense fear in theiir eyes.  The head od the forces, Lt. Col. Volesky (Michael Kelly), had his life flash before his eyes after being trapped by insurgents, only to be spared at the last minute.  Some of the wounded, thankfully, were evacuated to base camp to receive treatment for their injuries.

(Photo: National Geographic/Van Redin)

Back in the US, the news outlets reported fighting in Sadr City, understandably causing the soldiers’ wives to panic. Gina Denomy (Kate Bosworth) and LeAnn Volesky (Sarah Wayne Callies) were the point people but were limited as to what could be shared due to Army regulations, infuriating some of the wives.  Lt. Aguero’s wife later learned of the attack, causing her son Elijah to run to his room and cry, “Dad’s going to die and it’s all my fault.”  It’s heartbreaking, considering his reaction to the deployment in the first episode. Uncertainty hangs in the air, with lots of men still in harm’s way and darkness closing in . . .

Though they’ve played a small role in the program, the army wives have fascinated me. They had unknown fears going into the deployment.  Some were new mothers while some were expecting a child in a matter of months.  All were trying to keep life as normal as possible–not only for their children, but for themselves.  When the news began reporting on the situation in Iraq, it understandably caused the wives to worry: Were there casualties?  If so, was my husband one of them?  If so, how am I going to live life without them by my side? If they’re hurt, can I deal with taking care of them, no matter what the injury (physical or mental)?   The hardest thing in those moments is faith–faith in God, faith in the commanders, faith that all will be okay. The Bible says faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NASB).   That’s incredibly difficult for most of us in ordinary life, much less people in the military.  However, without faith in something to stand on, we just exist.  In the case of the military wives, faith is all they had to hold on to even with the swirling winds of conflicting news reports all about them.

Tomorrow evening’s episode will look at the situation in Sadr City from the eyes of an unlikely person—the interpreter.  It should be quite interesting.

The Long Road Home Ep. 1&2: Come Together

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(Photo: National Geographic/Van Redin)

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
–The Apostle Paul

Peacekeeping was the goal for the members of the First Calvary Division when they headed to Sadr City, Iraq in 2004.  It was a quiet area with one incident in the previous calendar year.

Two weeks later, that peace turned into war and a desperate fight for survival.

The first two episodes of National Geographic’s new series The Long Road Home (tonight, 9 PM/8 CT) chronicles the events of Black Sunday and paints a multifaceted picture of war and its effects on not only the soldiers but their families seven thousand miles away.  Based on the New York Times bestseller of the same name by ABC Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, it’s intense, violent, and sad—sometimes all at once.  It’s definitely must-see-TV (or at least must-DVR).

Each episode focuses, to some extent, on one of the main players in the Black Sunday attack on April 4, 2004.  1st Lt. Shane Aguero (EJ Bonilla) is the focal point of episode one as the leader of the group initially attacked.  The viewer sees him at the outset playing with his two kids, each of whom are taking his deployment hard.  His daughter is clinging to his side while his son wants absolutely nothing to do with him.  His wife Amber (Kate Paxton) is left to deal with things until he returns, but she has a group of wives on base who have banded together to provide support until the boys come back (if they do).

Life at Camp War Eagle seems quite boring, but who really wants action when it could mean dying in the process? When Aguero’s battalion is ambushed, it’s the first time many of the troops have ever experienced live fire of that nature.  It’s easy to tell the soldiers are a band of brothers, and when one of their own gets hit, it’s a race against time to keep him alive.

Courtesy National Geographic

The second episode looks at the situation through the eyes of Lt. Col. Gary Volesky (Michael Kelly, seen above), a calm, mild-mannered man who lives a life of faith back home.  There are flashbacks to his family praying before dinner and a few situations where he is asking God for faith in what would become two days of nightmares.  One of the most heartbreaking parts of the episode is when a soldier introduces his mom to Volesky, who promptly demands reasons as to why her son is being forced to deploy.  After calming her, he promises that everyone on the journey will return home alive. You can see his resolve shaken when he later learns one under his charge was killed.  Aguero’s team calls for reinforcements, and when they head out (inadequately protected, BTW), Volesky stands beside the chaplain as he prays a long prayer for them.  It’s easy to tell that the situation is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

I was immediately struck by how galvanized the troops were to each other.  Sure, they got on each other’s nerves and struggled with making the right decisions at times, but in the end, they all came together and took care of each together.  This was in direct contrast to the interpreter they had on board (Jassim al-Lani, played by Darius Homayoun), who seemed to be dispensable—especially to Sgt Eric Bourquin (Jon Beavers).  The writer of Ecclesiastes notes that “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up” (Eccl 4:9-10 NASB).  It works in friendship, it works in marriage, and it works in life-and-death situations. That writer was pretty wise!  We were not made to life live alone, and the first two episodes of The Long Road Home are testimony that is the case.

The Midwife – Life’s Transitions

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Life is a series of transitions, bookended by the two great transitions of birth and death. But along the way there are many more shifts in our lives—some trivial, others more profound. The Midwife is a story of the transitions of life that are–like life itself–a mixture of humor and poignancy.

Claire (Catherine Frot) is a French midwife who has settled into her life. She gets a call from Béatrice (Catherine Deneuve), asking to meet. Béatrice is the former mistress of Claire’s father. She abandoned them when Claire was a teenager, contributing to her father’s suicide. Claire is understandably cool with Béatrice. Even when Béatrice reveals that she is dying, Claire is slow to welcome her back into her life. But Béatrice really has no one else in all the world. She has lived “the life I wanted”, which has been totally self-centered.

Claire and Béatrice are both people who long for control in their lives, but have found that control by very different methods. Claire has tightly constructed her life. She leads a quiet existence without extremes. Béatrice, on the other hand, seeks to be in control by living free from societal constraints. Yet they both wish that the other could have been the mother-figure or daughter that has been missing in their lives.

While Béatrice deals with her mortality, Claire continues her work as a midwife, bringing new life into the world. (The film includes real-life birth sequences.) But even though those existential events provide for a contrast, the kinds of everyday transitions are what really drive the film. The clinic where Claire has worked for years is about to be closed. She can’t bring herself to work at the new regional birthing center (she calls it a “baby factory”) where even the term midwife is being replaced by “birth technician”. Her son is dropping out of medical school and is about to become a father (making Claire a grandmother). Although she’s not sought out a romantic relationship, one develops with the truck driving son of the neighbor at her garden. But the real transitions grow out of the interaction between Claire and Béatrice as they slowly come to understand and appreciate each other.

Both women must struggle with the loss of control as the lives they have constructed for themselves under go changes. Yet even though their worlds are turning upside down, the changes they meet bring them a something they have been missing. For Béatrice there is a sense of belonging to another that empowers her at the end of life. For Claire, it is an opening of new possibilities in her life.

We all experience transitions in our lives. Some are painful, others quite pleasurable. At times, we may seek ways of controlling all these changes. But through it all, we discover that our lives are constantly leading us to someplace new.

Photos Courtesy of Music Box Films