Hello all of you film fanatics. Today, I was looking at all of the amazing DVDs that were purchased for the library this month. It’s quite a motley collection: documentaries, foreign films, Academy Award winners, classics, and avant garde releases. Unless you regularly check our online catalog or get the skinny from the helpful students who work in the AV Center on A-Level, you might not know the most recent movies we’ve added to the collection, all of which you can check out.
So the first Friday of each month, I will blog about what’s new in the AV Center. I’ll choose one or two movies to review (today, it will be Jesus Camp), but I will also include a list of new movies and their call numbers.
In case you don’t remember, the film debut of Jesus Camp (DVD 2680) was quite the controversy in documentary and political circles last year. Jesus Camp tells the story of the “Kids On Fire School of Ministry,” an evangelical Christian summer camp located in North Dakota. Focusing on three children who attended the camp, the film cuts between footage of the camp and a children’s prayer conference at Christ Triumphant Church, a large charismatic church in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
Directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing argued that their film was an unbiased depiction of the evangelical Christian movement in America while Ted Haggard, formerly of the National Association of Evangelicals, disavowed the film. “You can learn as much about the Catholic Church from Nacho Libre as you can learn about evangelicalism from Jesus Camp,” he said. “It does represent a small portion of the charismatic movement, but I think it demonizes it.”
Judge for yourself. Check out what reviewers described as “a frightening, infuriating, yet profoundly compassionate documentary about the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical right;” “impressive in its even-handed presentation,” “straightforward” and “a revealing, unabashed look at the formation of tomorrow’s Army of God.”
Also new in the AV Center:
DVD 2660, In Praise of Love (Eloge de l’amour)
DVD 2661, Juliet of the Spirits (Giulietta degli spiriti)
DVD 2662, Werner Herzog’s The Wild Blue Yonder
DVD 2663, Flags of our Fathers
DVD 2664, The Prestige
DVD 2665, Mother, Jugs & Speed
DVD 2666, Cronos
DVD 2667, Let’s Do it Again
DVD 2668, Silver Streak
DVD 2669, The Departed
DVD 2670, Marie Antoinette
DVD 2671, Babel
DVD 2672, A nous la liberté
DVD 2673, Yaju no seishun
DVD 2674, And the Ship Sails On
DVD 2675, The Beales of Grey Gardens
DVD 2676, Little Miss Sunshine
DVD 2677, My Country, My Country
DVD 2678, Santa Santita
DVD 2679, Tanging Yaman
DVD 2680, Jesus Camp
DVD 2681, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
DVD 2682, The Fallen Idol
DVD 2683, I Pugni in tasca (Fists in the Pocket)
DVD 2684, Häxan ett kulturhistorist föredrag i levande bilder i 7 avdelningar
DVD 2685, Summertime
DVD 2686, Burden of Dreams
DVD 2687, The Illusionist
DVD 2688, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
DVD 2689, Marjoe
DVD 2690, Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait
DVD 2691, Legong: Dance of the Virgins
DVD 2692, An Angel at My Table, a trilogy
DVD 2693, Hairspray
DVD 2694, Pecker
DVD 2695, John Waters’ Desperate Living
DVD 2696, Female Trouble
DVD 2697, Pink Flamingos
DVD 2698, Polyester
DVD 2699, A Dirty Shame
DVD 2700, John Waters DVD Scrapbook
This is truly a great collection of new DVDs. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that a fair number of these are on reserve. You can watch them in the AV Center, but you cannot take them home.