By Denton Josey, Page Editor
Against the backdrop of the Tower of Light, the Beauchamp Amphitheatre will host a screening of the movie Invisible Children on Monday at 8:45 p.m. as part of Lectureship’s Late Night festivities.
Kate Miller, ministry events coordinator, said Doug Darby, creative and media specialist at ACU, and Matt Maxwell, senior electronic media major from Abilene, wanted to bring someone in to help with a film workshop for FilmFest.
“When we came up with the idea to do a filmmakers workshop, [Maxwell and Darby] wanted to have special guests,” she said.
Miller said Invisible Children was at the top of the list.
Dr. Mark Love, director of ministry events, said not only does bringing Invisible Children to campus benefit the FilmFest workshop, it also corresponds with the mercy and justice ideas taught during Lectureship.
“Here are students that made a film-a good one,” Love said. “We thought it’d be ideal for our students to hear.”
Love said each year they try and make sure to feature opportunities for involvement with justice and mercy. Part of spiritual formation is related to mercy and justice, he said.
“Unless we’re making a difference in the world, we’re not serving God’s purpose,” Love said.
The movie’s editors, Travis Russell and Mariana Blanco, are coming to teach the filmmaker’s workshop.
“We originally invited the filmmakers, and at least one was going to be here, but now they are stuck in Africa,” Miller said.
Nicole Neff, office manager for Invisible Children, said the filmmakers, Laren Poole, Bobby Bailey and Jason Russell went to cover a story and are in Gulu, Uganda.
Though he is disappointed about the filmmakers not coming, Love said it’s good the actual editors of the movie are coming because the workshop is about filmmaking. There will be a question and answer time with the editors after the screening, and they will be selling merchandise to support the cause.
“Even if the war ends, Invisible Children is not going away. There’s a lot of clean-up that still needs to be done,” Neff said. “We not there just to help end the war but also to help out in the repairs of the country.”
A changed ending is in the version of the movie that will be shown on Monday. There is a proof section about awareness in America, a section about the bracelet campaign and information about the education program.
“There are films with the bracelets,” Neff said. “Grace is the first story told through a girl’s eyes. It is her story of being a child mother and being pregnant from the LRA.”
The 25-minute movie about Grace is a part of a bracelet campaign designed to provide job opportunities for people stuck in internally displaced persons camps. Neff said there are currently 130 bracelet makers.
“Because it is youth over there, it hits home with youth over here,” Miller said. “The youth are the most influential people in the nation, even though a lot of people don’t think they are. We are the people in the future that will be making the decisions and making the biggest influence.”
Love said he would like there to be more awareness, and because there are nearly 1,000 new students and Lectureship visitors on campus, showing the movie again is a good idea.
“I told one of the filmmakers it’s not so much the number of people that come to Lectureship; it’s who comes,” Love said. “These are church leaders. I want Christians to be global Christians. I want us to cry about what’s going on in the world.”
