Hope in dark places

Freedom, the first film produced by independent film company, Production One Inc, tells the story of two men – across two different centuries – whose lives are intertwined by the scourge of slavery and the hope of freedom.

The film, inspired by real people and actual events, opens in 1859 as Samuel Woodward (Cuba Gooding Jnr) and his family escape ...

History recalled

Constantine’s Sword: the Church and the Jews. A History, by James Carroll

Review by Edwin Carter

There are certain books which should be compulsory reading for all church members with a sense of church history, and in particular any sense of the ways in which the Church has treated our Jewish brothers and sisters. The book Constantine’s Sword is ...

The Gospel According to John Michael McDonagh

Movie  l  Calvary   l  MA 15+

Calvary is a film that takes a long, hard look at the clerical sex abuse scandals that have increasingly dominated Irish newspaper headlines since the mid-90’s. Director John Michael McDonagh (The Guard)  eschews any attempt at realism though, with the resulting film an unusual blend of theatrical speeches, surreal black humour and intense emotion.

...

Human, Not Too Human – Son of God

MOVIE  l  Son of God  l  M

Son of God, adapted from the miniseries The Bible produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, is an odd project. First it clearly is a television series gussied up to look like a feature film. The proceedings are shot by documentarian Christopher Spencer in a manner that feels closer to a History Channel ...

The life in our years

MOVIE  l  Fault in our Stars  l  M

‘It’s the life in your years not the years in your life’ could have been an alternative working title for the newly released film The Fault in Our Stars. A film which, if I was a 14-year-old girl, I’m sure I would have loved – like, a lot.

It has all the ...

Ghosts of our making

When Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts was first performed in London in 1891, the reaction was visceral – ‘putrid’, ‘naked loathsomeness’, ‘repulsive’, ‘revoltingly suggestive and blasphemous’. The Norwegian playwright had hit a nerve, exposing the dark underbelly of family life, stripping away the masks that people wear to protect propriety and reputation.

Fast forward to Melbourne’s Sumner Theatre 2014, the audience reaction ...

A time to be born and a time to die

MOVIE  l  The Zero Theorem  l  M

Terry Gilliam’s latest film opens with a naked man sitting in a chair in the middle of an abandoned church, gazing at a computer display of a vast black hole in space. The computer display and surrounding items of technology identify the film as being set in some futuristic period. The surrounding ...

UCA’s hot-button issues in brand new book

An Informed Faith, The Uniting Church at the beginning of the 21st century (ed by William W. Emilsen.)

BOOK  l  $39.95
Available at UNIChurch resources

Review by Penny Mulvey

Last month, UCA past president Rev Alistair Macrae and the moderator of NSW/ACT Synod were both arrested for participating in a joint action of civil disobedience in the Melbourne ...

Double or nothing?

MOVIE  l  The Double  l M l

As I watched, I wondered if I was supposed to understand what, exactly, was going on. Just a few minutes into Richard Ayoade’s latest film, I realised it was not going to be a hopeful comedy of self-realisation and ‘turning one’s life around’. Oh, no. It was going to be a lot more ...

Yes or No-ah

Below are two responses to Darren Aronofsky’s film Noah, by Megan Graham and Emmet O’Cuana.

Noah blockbuster makes questionable choices
by Megan Graham

The International Movie Database website describes the plot of Noah this way: “A man is chosen by his world’s creator to undertake a momentous mission to rescue the innocent before an ...

Real love

Love Made Real – David Hodges’ Service to the Church and Community

Review by David Flowers

This book traces the parish life and work of Rev David Hodges AM from 1968 to 1983 at the Toorak Uniting Church (TUC). It gives some attention to his ministry thereafter until his retirement in 2006.

Readers of this book have three broad ...

To save or not to save?

The World is Not Ours to Save, T Wigg-Stevenson, InterVarsity press, 2013.

Review by Cath James

As someone who works for justice, I confess to entertaining the thought that I might contribute a little to making the world a better place. But this book has challenged my thoughts on this.

The first part of this book draws on ...