God Loves Film (Got a Light?)

I’ve been making short films since the summer before my Senior year of High School. Since then I’ve made over 70 short films. As to why I make films on my own, instead of just for classes, it’s mainly because I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. I believe this is what I was meant to do.

I always think of Eric Little from Chariots of Fire when I think about making films. He says that he feels God’s pleasure when he runs, and he can’t stop running because God made him fast. I feel the same way about making and watching films. When I see a film by directors like Wong Kar Wai, Jia Zhang Ke, Chan Wook Park, or Hou Hsiao Hsien I not only see God in the humanness and artistry of those films, but I feel God calling me to go out there and do the same.

God loves films. He loves new innovative styles and cinematography. And I love films because I see God’s beauty and truth in them. He made me to love films, and I’m just doing what he created me to do. That’s the amazing thing about movies–they capture God’s creation. Films capture humans in God’s world, and we can experience so much of God’s love, truth, and beauty in his creation through films. And the cool thing about it, is that we experience them through a film in a new, fresh, unique way that we could never do in real life. A minimalist film like Last Life in the Universe shows a real-life situation in Bangkok. But the style of the film makes it extraordinary. The music, the cinematography, the pacing– all of these things add to this world that would not be there in every day life. Films celebrate the possible beauty of everything! As Christopher Doyle says, “maybe–just maybe–by celebrating the possible beauty in things, films can change the world just a little.”

The other huge reason I make films is because I think (I hope at least), that I have something to say that will mean something to someone. I want people to walk out of my films asking big questions. I want people to love people more after watching my films. I want people to love God more after watching my films. I want to challenge people in the messages I bring across.

I hope my latest film Got a Light accomplishes some of that. I hope I showed the beauty of God’s world and God’s people in this film. The film is showing on at 7 p.m. on April 21, in John White Chapel in Old Main, but people can show up as early as 6 for refreshments.

–Mark Sanders