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Social Activists inspired by the Bible
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- DirectorJamie MoffettStarsTony CampoloShane ClaiborneChris HawIn the margins of the United States, there lives a revolutionary Christianity. One with a quiet disposition that seeks to do "small things with great love," and in so doing is breaking 21st Century stereotypes surrounding this 2000 year old faith. "The Ordinary Radicals" is set against the modern American political and social backdrop of the next Great Awakening. Traveling across the United States on a tour to promote the book "Jesus for President", Shane Claiborne and a rag-tag group of "ordinary radicals" interpret Biblical history and its correlation with the current state of American politics. Sharing a relevant outlook for people with all faith perspectives, director Jamie Moffett examines this growing movement. As Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw write in the book, "This is not a set of political suggestions for the world; this is about invoking and embodying the alternative. All of this is an invitation to join a peculiar people- those with no king but God, who practice jubilee economics and make the world new. This is not the old-time religion of going to heaven; this is about bringing heaven to the world."
- DirectorJamie MoffettStarsLeroy BarberTony CampoloShane ClaiborneThe first installment of "The Ordinary Radicals: Special Topics" explores the historical development of the new movement towards justice-centered faith. Shane Claiborne, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, and others offer perspectives on the witness of the early Church, the social context surrounding the rise of fundamentalism, the emergence of a new understanding of a social gospel, and the construction of a new cross-denominational vision of unity for today's church.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsIoan GruffuddAlbert FinneyMichael GambonThe idealist William Wilberforce maneuvers his way through Parliament, endeavoring to end the British transatlantic slave trade.
- DirectorJamie MoffettStarsTony CampoloShane ClaiborneChris HawIn the margins of the United States, there lives a revolutionary Christianity. One with a quiet disposition that seeks to do "small things with great love," and in so doing is breaking 21st Century stereotypes surrounding this 2000 year old faith. "The Ordinary Radicals" is set against the modern American political and social backdrop of the next Great Awakening. Traveling across the United States on a tour to promote the book "Jesus for President", Shane Claiborne and a rag-tag group of "ordinary radicals" interpret Biblical history and its correlation with the current state of American politics. Sharing a relevant outlook for people with all faith perspectives, director Jamie Moffett examines this growing movement. As Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw write in the book, "This is not a set of political suggestions for the world; this is about invoking and embodying the alternative. All of this is an invitation to join a peculiar people- those with no king but God, who practice jubilee economics and make the world new. This is not the old-time religion of going to heaven; this is about bringing heaven to the world."
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsIoan GruffuddAlbert FinneyMichael GambonThe idealist William Wilberforce maneuvers his way through Parliament, endeavoring to end the British transatlantic slave trade.
- DirectorLouis YansenStarsAlexis Baden-MayerTom HaydenEmcee LynxFive young activists with diverse convictions embark on a quest to affect political change, each in their own unique way. But can regular citizens really change the system nowadays? The 60's activist, Tom Hayden, advises them and compares his own experiences. Amazingly, in the process, these individuals must change themselves.
- DirectorDavid VinikDebra Gonsher VinikStarsPeter GeffenShai HeldSusannah HeschelWhen poetry and music create a true collaboration whereby they can retain their distinctiveness and also serve a larger whole; that we call beauty. "Every Word has Power" is an illustration of such a collaboration. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was more than poet and Basya Schechter is more than a musician. But in this one hour concert, they both deploy their special craft in the service of the other. Heschel's words and Basya's melody. What results is beauty.
- DirectorStanley NelsonStarsRaymond ArsenaultGenevieve HoughtonGordon CareyThe story of the Civil Rights Movement interstate busing protest campaign.
- StarsRamsey ClarkDavid ClineJeremy CorbynOver half a million people converged on Washington DC on January 18, 2003 to oppose the US War on Iraq. Speakers: Jessica Lange, Tyne Daly, Mara Verheydin-Hilliard, Gralan Haglen, Michael Letwin, Liz McAlister, John Dear, Jeremy Corbyn, Yoami Jeong, Ramsey Clark. This documentary was created from live footage which aired on Free Speech TV live on January 18, 2003.
- DirectorKevin BrownlowStarsMiles HalliwellJerome WillisTerry HigginsWinstanley explores the attempt by Gerrard Winstanley who formed 'The Diggers' and with a group of followers attempted to form a small farming community in one of the first proto-Communist attempts at collective agriculture.
- DirectorMichael Ray RhodesStarsMoira KellyMartin SheenLenny von DohlenChronicles the life of Dorothy Day who dedicated herself in service to her socialist beliefs and her adopted faith of Catholicism. The movement she created continues to thrive to this day, with more than 200 communities across the United States and another 28 communities abroad. The title of the movie is taken from a phrase which means to treat all guests, whether they be kings or peasants, like they were visiting angels.
- StarsAlan YentobDavid CalderDeborah FindlayThe Life of Tolstoy, from his gambling and youtful escapades, to his powerful religious conversion and finally death.
- DirectorJohn DuiganStarsRaul JuliaRichard JordanAna AliciaThe life and work of Archbishop Oscar Romero who opposed, at great personal risk, the tyrannical repression in El Salvador.
- DirectorStijn ConinxStarsJan DecleirGérard DesartheAntje de BoeckIn the 1890s, Father Adolf Daens goes to Aalst, a textile town where child labor is rife, pay and working conditions are horrible, the poor have no vote, and the Catholic church backs the petite bourgeoisie in oppressing workers. He writes a few columns for the Catholic paper, and soon workers are listening and the powerful are in an uproar. He's expelled from the Catholic party, so he starts the Christian Democrats and is elected to Parliament. After Rome disciplines him, he must choose between two callings, as priest and as champion of workers. In subplots, a courageous young woman falls in love with a socialist and survives a shop foreman's rape; children die; prelates play billiards.
- DirectorDiego LunaStarsMichael PeñaAmerica FerreraRosario DawsonA biography of the civil-rights activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez.
- DirectorNewton Thomas SigelPamela YatesStarsRigoberta MenchúSusan SarandonA documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with firsthand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.
- DirectorAva DuVernayStarsDavid OyelowoCarmen EjogoOprah WinfreyA chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
- DirectorHelvecio RattonStarsCaio BlatDaniel de OliveiraLéo QuintãoDuring the period of 1964 to 1985, Brazil lived a military dictatorship. In the 60s, the Dominican friars Tito, Betto, Fernando and Ivo help leftist organizations. However, they are arrested and tortured by the despicable Chief of DOPS Fleury, who is trying to arrest the leader Carlos Marighella. Tito and Fernando do not resist the violent torture and betray Marighella, who is ambushed and executed by Fleury. In 1973, in France, the exiled friar Tito is unable to overcome his trauma and depression and commits suicide in the Convent of La Tourette.
- DirectorSkizz CyzykJoe TropeaStarsRahne AlexanderJoel AndreasBill AyersA feature-length documentary about priests and nuns who protested the Vietnam War by breaking into draft boards, destroying draft records, and then waiting around to be arrested. Their actions inspired a movement, which shaped the anti-war movement and helped bring an end to the draft.
- DirectorOtakar VávraStarsZdenek StepánekKarel HögerVlasta MatulováDuring the Great Papal Schism, protestant reformer, Jan Hus, speaks out against the rampant corruption of the Church in Rome, kickstarting a religious revolution in Bohemia.
- DirectorRoland JofféStarsRobert De NiroJeremy IronsRay McAnallyEighteenth-century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.
- DirectorMichael HoffmanStarsHelen MirrenJames McAvoyChristopher PlummerA historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.
- DirectorFranco ZeffirelliStarsGraham FaulknerJudi BowkerLeigh LawsonDramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
- DirectorLynne SachsStarsDaniel BerriganPhilip BerriganDavid DarstOn May 17, 1968, three Catholic priests, a nurse, an artist and four others walked into a Catonsville, Maryland draft board office, grabbed hundreds of selective service records and burned them with homemade napalm. Their poetic act of civil disobedience helped galvanize an increasingly disillusioned American public against the Vietnam War. Investigation of a Flame is an intimate look at this Sixties protest within our current times, when foes of Middle East peace, abortion, and technology resort to violence to access the public imagination. Lynne Sachs combines volatile, long-unseen, archival footage with interviews with Daniel and Philip Berrigan and other members of the Catonsville Nine, encouraging viewers to ponder the relevance of civil disobedience and the implications of personal sacrifice today.
- DirectorMartin DoblmeierStarsKlaus Maria BrandauerAdele SchmidtRichard ManciniDramatic documentary about the young German pacifist and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who resisted the Nazi regime and was hanged two weeks before World War II was over.
- DirectorRaul V. CarreraStarsNorbert WeisserMark LenardLeigh LombardiThe dramatic story of the Anabaptist movement and two of its first leaders, Michael and Margaretha Sattler.
- DirectorMarc RothemundStarsJulia JentschFabian HinrichsAlexander HeldA dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
- DirectorRick Tejada-FloresRay TellesStarsDaryl ArnoldJerry BrownLeRoy ChatfieldThis documentary traces the history of the United Farmworkers Union and the life of its founder, Cesar Chavez, from his birth in Arizona, his education into organizing and non-violence, his formation of the union, to his death in 1993. It includes newsreel footage of the Delano grape boycott, Senate hearings conducted by Robert F. Kennedy, Chavez's fasts, encounters with growers and rival Teamsters. Recent interviews with Chavez family members, Ethyl Kennedy, Roger Cardinal Mahony, Governor Jerry Brown, and current and past UFW leaders round out the history and assessment of Chavez and the Union.
- StarsKristin BoothTatiana MaslanyIan TraceyA mini-series based on the work of Canadian political icon Tommy Douglas.
- DirectorMatthew J. EvansStarsLinda BertenthalRussell BrownLeona EvansYoung filmmaker, Matthew J. Evans, takes a look at one of the most pressing issues in our modern society: violence among religions. Through discussions with Arun Gandhi, grandson of M.K. Gandhi, and local religious leaders from the Central Coast of California, Matthew learns powerful lessons about nonviolence, acceptance, and cultural understanding. As Gandhi has said, 'We must become the change we wish to see in our world!' This film helps us understand how we can make these changes. In 2014, A Quest For Peace: Nonviolence Among Religions received The Art Of Making Peace Award from the Peace in the Streets Global Film Festival. Producer/Director Matthew J. Evans received the award at the United Nations.
- DirectorRussell MulcahyStarsSigourney WeaverHenry CzernyRyan KelleyTrue story of Mary Griffith, gay rights crusader, whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance. Based on the book of the same title by Leroy Aarons.
- DirectorEric TillStarsUlrich TukurJohanna KlanteRobert JoyThe story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German clergyman of great distinction, who actively opposed Hitler and the Nazis. His convictions cost him his life.
- DirectorGavin MillarStarsJeroen KrabbéBarbara HersheyJudith GodrècheFor generations the name Albert Schweitzer has been synonymous with hands-on compassion and the power of Christ-like sacrifice. Now director Gavin Miller presents a landmark drama about the legendary Christian medical missionary. Co-starring Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress Barbara Hershey as Helene Schweitzer.
- DirectorRicky TognazziStarsBob HoskinsCarlo CecchiRoberto CitranAngelo Roncalli, born in Sotto Il Monte in 1881, is known for his profound spirituality as well as his extraordinary goodness from the young years of his life. When he feels a need to serve God, Angelo goes to study theology in Bergamo, and in Apollinare School (Rome) and becomes a priest. During his studies, he gets to know his two dearest friends, Mattia and Nicola. Very soon, most people see marvelous talents in him, including his wide knowledge and a constant readiness for sacrifice. The Holy See makes him go further to bishop and cardinal, and the Holy Father sends him to various places as a representative of the Church. When Pius XII dies on October, the 9th, 1958, 77 year-old Angelo goes to Rome, to conclave to choose a new pope. However, this time, it is him who hears gentle words of Jesus "Tu es Petrus!" ("You are Peter!") and from October, the 28th leads the church as Pope John XXIII.
- DirectorSergey GerasimovStarsSergey GerasimovTamara MakarovaBorivoj NavrátilThe film concentrates on the late years of the life of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy leading up to his death, telling about his disenchantment with the system and exploitation of the common people by the privileged classes.
- DirectorJerry LondonStarsGregory PeckChristopher PlummerJohn GielgudVatican efforts, led by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, to save Allied P.O.W.s and downed Allied airmen as the Nazis invade Rome.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsRobert WieckiewiczAgnieszka GrochowskaIwona BielskaThe depiction of the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Poland's Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, as events in the 1970s lead to a peaceful revolution.
- DirectorKrzysztof ZanussiStarsEdward ZentaraChristoph WaltzArtur BarcisThe story of Catholic saint Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz.
- StarsPaul WinfieldCicely TysonTony BennettThe story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stretching from his days as a Southern Baptist minister up to his assassination in Memphis in 1968.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDenzel WashingtonAngela BassettDelroy LindoBiographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
- DirectorEmile de AntonioStarsDaniel BerriganPhilip BerriganDean HammerDramatization of the trial of Christian anti-war activists, known collectively as the "Plowshares Eight". In September 1980, they broke into a General Electric weapons plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and in an act of protest against nuclear proliferation, poured vials of their own blood onto secret missle plans, burned other files, and damaged nosecones intended for nuclear missles. The direct-to-video production is intercut with clips from actual news coverage of the trial. The "Plowshares Eight" portray themselves in the production, and after taping was complete, reported to court for their imprisonment.
- DirectorMichael Caton-JonesStarsJohn HurtHugh DancyDominique HorwitzA Catholic Priest and an English teacher get stranded in a school in Kigali during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
- DirectorIsaac StambaughStarsKen StrunkJeff ArnoldCathy BarneyThough many are familiar with the Quaker names such as William Penn, Susan B. Anthony, Daniel Boone and Johns Hopkins, lesser-known Quakers also impacted society in significant ways. These are untold stories Friends who profoundly influenced the course of American history by seeing that of God in everyone.
- DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsUlrich TukurMathieu KassovitzUlrich MüheDuring WWII SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to inform Pope Pius XII about Jews being sent to extermination camps. Young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana helps him in the difficult mission to inform the world.
- DirectorAlan SkogStarsBill MoyersChristoph von Dohnányi
- George Stroumboulopoulos shares the life of Tommy Douglas, declaring him a "rebel." The public chose Tommy as the Greatest Canadian in a public vote at the end of the series.
- DirectorMichael EconomouStarsRod ColbinRegis CordicMarvin MillerA faithful recounting of the ministry, trial and martyrdom of the fifteenth century Bohemian priest John Hus, who built on the reforms of John Wycliffe, taught the Bible in the vernacular and who influenced Martin Luther a century later.
- DirectorMichael TobiasStarsThe Dalai LamaThe first film to chronicle the world of Jainism, a vegetarian, non-violent ancient religion of India.
- DirectorJeta AmataStarsNick MoranScott CleverdonMbong AmataThe story of British slave trader John Newton's voyage to West Africa and the events that inspired him to write the world's most popular hymn, Amazing Grace.
- DirectorAllen WolfStarsMichael Anthony WalkerMichael BroughtonCheryl GaskinWhat happens when a Harvard graduate, with a promising future from a prominent family decides to move into Harlem to help the homeless? This true story chronicles the amazing impact of one dedicated individual on the lives of homeless men.
- DirectorTim RobbinsStarsSusan SarandonSean PennRobert ProskyA nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim's families.
- StarsJon RonsonInvestigative journalist journalist Jon Ronson leads a panel discussion between practising Quakers who talk about what drew them to the religion and what they appreciate about it.
- DirectorLuiz BolognesiJean Cullen De MouraMarcelo Fernandes De MouraStarsSelton MelloCamila PitangaRodrigo SantoroRevolves around the love between an immortal hero and Janaína, the woman he has been in love with for 600 years, through Brazil's colonization, slavery, military regime and the future, in 2096, in the midst of wars for water.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLima DuarteLuís Miguel CintraRicardo TrêpaThe story of Father Antonio Vieira, a 17th-century Portuguese priest who lived in Brazil and worked for better treatment of the Indians and to abolish slavery.
- DirectorSylvio BackStarsCarlos Pussineri ScalaThe story of the so called Christian-Communist Republic of the Guaranis. Formed by jesuit missions in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, between 1610/1767, it congregated about 150,000 indians in almost fifty "Reductions" (the cities organized by the Jesuits). The Christian-Communist Republic of the Guaranis was decimated by attacks of expeditions and mercenaries, and served as excuse for the kings of Portugal and Spain to banish the Jesuits from America.
- DirectorDaniel JungeStarsWagner MouraFelício PontesMartin SheenDocumentary on the killing of 73-year-old Catholic nun and activist Sister Dorothy Stang in February 2005, in the state of Pará (Brazilian rain forest), where she, for 30 years, fought along with environmentalists and the underprivileged local communities against the exploitation of powerful loggers and landowners.
- DirectorSante AltizioThe Jesuit priest Jon Sobrino is one of the most illustrious exponents of liberation theology. A university professor, he survived the massacre committed inside the Central American University of San Salvador on November 16, 1989. Between his appearances portrays four Italian missionaries who work in Amazzonia, Sudan, Egypt, and the Philippines.
- DirectorMonique GardenbergStarsHenry CzernyPatrick BauchauJúlia LemmertzOne day Michael, a U.S. journalist who works for a Brazilian newspaper, is put in charge of interviewing Father Louis Stephen, a famed Catholic missionary who helps the needy in the jungles of Brazil. He has one problem: the Father rarely gives interviews. However, Michael decides that he will be the first to interview the Father personally, and he journeys to the center of Brazil in search of the priest. Michael will soon know how hard it can be to get an interview, and that the Father's apparent media-shyness has deeper implications than he thought..
- DirectorPaul LederStarsMaxwell CaulfieldEdward AlbertViveca LindforsA Central American revolutionary is captured and tortured by government forces. He escapes and flees to the US, hiding out in a rural area where he is sheltered by a Christian sanctuary movement. His wife gets a job at a local diner run by one of the town's shadier women, and soon a CIA assassination team shows up, looking for him.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.