40 Frames in Focus

So, after asking the Internet, aka my Facebook friends, I've decided to focus my 40 Frames and 40 Nights Lenten discipline.

I'll be doing the following films, which are fairly easy to stream online.

• Dope
• Dirty Pretty Things
• Beasts of No Nation
• Weekend
• Tangerine
• Blue is the Warmest Color
• Monica and David

The following are films that I've found physical copies for, that I also plan on watching during Lent, which I will talk about over the course of the next 40 days as well.  However, they are not as easy to stream online.

• Chi-Raq
• The Skeleton Twins
• Saved!
• Ill Manors

I know not all of these films are perfect.  But I'm going to make a conscious decision for the purpose of this Lenten discipline to not focus on their flaws and how they perpetuate other symptoms of systemic sin in our world.  Instead, I'm going to focus my reflections on how each of these films challenge my understanding of how the world works.

So here goes!

40 Frames and 40 Nights?

Lent is weird.

There.  I said it.

This period of giving things up - usually things we ought to give up anyway like chocolate or soda - in order to offer a great big apology to God for messing up during the year has always felt a little off.

That being said, recently I've seen some articles and blog posts being written that highlight taking something on as a Lenten discipline.  Things like reading scripture, praying more, exercising, volunteering.  All of which are good things, but again, feel like those are things we should be doing on a daily basis, much like saying no to that second piece of chocolate.

As this Lent has approached, I've felt that maybe there's another way.  That perhaps there's a way to give up/take on something new, that will be more than an apology, but rather as an intentional way to step outside of myself and my mistakes and focus on the larger human community and the larger human experience.

That is to say, to be more mindful of the ways that I have unwittingly participated in perpetuating larger systems of sin in our world.  Those big things, like racism, patriarchy, ableism, and yes, even heteronormativity.

How do I participate in these things the most, you may ask?

Well, like any good investigator, I followed the money.  And where did my money trail lead?  To movies and television shows.  Those two things have been where I've consistently spent my money for several years now.

I took stock of my collection and I noticed a sadly overwhelming theme which is that I was swallowing whole-heartedly the world that Hollywood was trying to sell me.  White guy and white girl, guy saves girl, guy gets girl, they live happily ever after with their 2.4 kids in their suburban house (insert my hyperbolic voice here).

So this Lent, I'm going to try something different.  I'm going to start spending my time/money/energy watching films that feel unfamiliar to me.  The films that challenge my views about how the world works.

Over the next week, I'm going to compile a post with 5 (or more) different movies on it - each movie being one that in some way challenges or tells a story different from the ones most of my movie collection has to offer right now.

I'm going to watch each of these movies and invite you to watch them too so together we can explore a different way of seeing the world.

My hope is that by spending our time/energy with these films, we can learn to celebrate the plurality of the human experience instead of trying to highlight one over and against the others.