Meeting Jesus at the Oscars By HoseaRupprecht, FSP It’s Oscar weekend here at Pauline Books and Media and the nuns (well, a few of the nuns, anyway) are gearing up for the broadcast of the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday evening. You see, we not only produce Catholic media but teach others, through our Pauline Center for Media Studies, how to find seedsof the Gospel in the secular media we consume. Gospel values might be obvious in movies such as Jesusof Nazareth, The Song of Bernadette, Fireproof or Courageous, but not so easy to spot in The Artist, Moneyball or Midnight in Paris (to mention just a few of the Best Picture contenders). They are there, though, if we look with eyes of faith. How to Watch Movies with Kids: A Values-Based Strategy, offers a
guide to watching movies, identifying both positive and negative values, and talking with children about those values and how they can help or hinder our lives as disciples of Christ. Our lives are built on our fundamental values, human and Christian. We try our best to make choices based on values such as respect, honesty, integrity, forgiveness, courage and love. Jesusshowed us how to do so, and now we work to passthese values on to the children in our lives. Finding values in modern film and making meaning from those values is easier when you understand a bit about how movies are made. There’s a chapter in How to Watch Movies with Kids on this, also. Movie making is what the Oscars celebrate. They give awards for sound, cinematography (camera work), editing, scriptwriting, and music, along with the more popular awards for acting and directing. The talent and art that goes into making a movie deserve to be celebrated. Hence the Oscar party at our convent Sunday! But the Oscars tend to gloss over what is at the heart of experiencing movies as a Christian: entering into stories that have the potential to help us live better Christ-like lives. How do the Best Picture nominees hold up in light of the Gospel? A fun twist for your family on Oscar night might be to nominate some films you’ve seen for a ‘Best Christian Values’ category! So, the next time you journey to your local theater or snuggle up on the couch (buttered popcorn anyone?) to watch a film, think about the stories you see. Jesusor God may not be mentioned or seen directly, but, as the late Fr. Bud Kaiser (Entertaining Angels) said about The Insider, “whenever a film shows someone giving of themselves for others, God is there.” Happy and Holy movie-watching!