November 26th

Do You Watch Good Cinema?

Can I ask you this; Do you watch good cinema? We live today in an incredibly rich time of creative and prophetic storytelling, and yet I worry as ever that this privilege is not taken up by as many of us as ought to. Perceptions are always a fickle thing, so I certainly hope I am wrong about this, but I wonder if the Church has lost the gift of film and television. That by-and-large we have not learned the ways of media literacy, those skills to engage profound and confrontational storytelling well. Engaging authentic film and television is not just engaging art, but a spiritual practice that can connect us with our own humanity, and importantly the humanity of our neighbours.

On November 15th (2025), Pope Leo XIV invited a number of renowned actors and directors for a meeting in Rome. Ignoring the irony of this Anabaptist pastor immediately jumping on something the Pope said, his address to this audience is worth reading (Official address). At one point in the address, Leo shares the words; “Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative.” I can’t get that invitation out of my head, “defend slowness,” what a pertinent charge for us. Art takes time, it is a collaborative effort between the artist, the subject, and the medium. Its truthfulness is not something churned out by algorithm or hastily glued together to turn a profit.
And the appreciation of it cannot be rushed either. To engage this art form, the vision, the story, the humanity, we need to offer our attention. This ought to be understood as one of the most needed spiritual disciplines of our time; attention. It is a hot commodity these days, your attention is what everything wants (at least insofar as it leads to your wallet). But attention is an act of love, and what we choose to give our attention to has much to say about our theology. Leo goes on; “Giving voice to the complex, contradictory and sometimes dark feelings that dwell in the human heart is an act of love.” When films and television offer such windows into the world, it takes time as the audience to sit with it, mulling it over, considering with grace and honestly both the visions that we comprehend, and even more so those ones that are strangers to us.

Leo uses the phrase “Authentic cinema” a few times, which is a poignant distinction but carries much subjectivity. There is no universal metric that can distinguish what is ‘Art’ vs some hollow imitation of it. And yet, I hope we might all agree that there is a distinction, that not every film is good cinema. But to borrow the phrase popularized in a 1964 US Supreme court case; “I know it when I see it.” Some, perhaps most, or maybe few; some works of film and television have the Spirit within them. They invite us into the wondering, the imagining, the acknowledging, the mourning of our world. And because of that we need to be good watchers.

A professor of mine one said, “if you want to be good readers of the bible, you need to be good readers of fiction.” Art: good, true, authentic art connects us to our humanity, a thing to which we hold is in some way inseparably divine (Imago Dei). Leo adds that among the gift of films shared is that it offers us “a language of peace.” So, watch good cinema friends, keep your eyes on what pieces, both those in the mainstream and those more obscure titles that are worth sitting with. And as you do, I am deeply convinced that you will notice more beauty, artistry, and imagination in your faith. Let it be so.