Orson Welles observed: “I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.” E.B. White warned that the visual might replace words saying, “TV has taken a big bite out of the written word. But words still count with me.” Into the debate marched Neil Postman, educator and communications theorist with his book “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” a radical assessment of how TV changes how we learn and think, and ultimately how we discourse in what he saw as an increasingly entertainment oriented society… He seemed to favor words and reading as a higher form of human communication… In this podcast we take up the subject “Word, Image and the Neil Postman Problem“ beginning with Gregory Wolfe, author, publisher of IMAGE a journal of Art, Faith and Mystery.

 

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“For the Bible Tells Me So,” director/producer Daniel Karslake, and “Save Me” producer Christopher Racster, actors Chad Allen and Robert Gant are interviewed by Craig Detweiler who then invites questions and answers from the Windrider Forum audience. One of the most remarkable developments at this year’s Sundance was the appearance of two, thoughtful explorations by gay filmmakers of the relationship between being Christian and being gay. These films introduce gays who embrace the Christian faith and welcome dialogue with Christians who find gay life and Christian life incompatible.

 

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“For the Bible Tells Me So,” director/producer Daniel Karslake, and “Save Me” producer Christopher Racster, actors Chad Allen and Robert Gant are interviewed by Craig Detweiler from the Windrider Forum. One of the most remarkable developments at this year’s Sundance was the appearance of two, thoughtful explorations by gay filmmakers of the relationship between being Christian and being gay. These films introduce gays who embrace the Christian faith and welcome dialogue with Christians who find gay life and Christian life incompatible.

 

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Guest Host Craig Detweiler interviews Director Pernille Rose Grønkjær on her film “THE MONASTERY: MR. VIG AND THE NUN” at the Windrider Forum at Sundance film festival. (The interview is followed by audience questions and answers.) Pernille Rose Grankjar graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 1995 with a degree in directing. She has created several programs for Danish television, including A Dream Come True (2006), The Family (Familien) (2005), and Fashion Patrol (Modepatruljen) (2004). Her programs Repeating Grandpa and Mad About TV were nominated for best documentary at the 2002 and 2003 Danish Television Festivals, and Those Were the Days was nominated for the Danish equivalent of the Emmy in 2000. Sundance describes this film as follows: “Wills are tested, and lives are changed forever in this Read more

 

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Guest Host Craig Detweiler interviews three people who appear in “For The Bible Tells Me So” at the Windrider Forum at Sundance film festival. (The interview is followed by audience questions and answers.) Mel White left Fuller Seminary and foundede Soul Force after coming out of the closet. Bob and Mary Lou Wellner’s daughter Anna experienced rejection after announcing that she was a lesbian adn committed suicide some months later. SUNDANCE describes the film this way: “Are homosexuals welcome in the kingdom of God? For centuries, the Bible has been used to sanction discrimination, repression, and injustice. It has justified slavery, empowered segregation, and excused the subjugation of women–and the tradition continues. Same tactics, new target. Today a handful of religious passages are constantly exploited to validate hatred and violence against homosexuals. Filmmaker Daniel Karslake explores the way religious conservatives have systematically misled the public into believing that the Bible forbids homosexuality and how this campaign of misinterpretation continues to stigmatize the gay community and threaten America’s rapidly diminishing separation of church and state. With a keen sense of irony, Karslake focuses on the family. Through the unfolding of five very moving stories of Christian families with a gay or lesbian member and the reflections of major biblical scholars, the film examines what, if anything, the Bible actually says about homosexuality as we know it today. Skillfully constructed, painstakingly researched, wielding whimsical animation and a proudly unapologetic point of view, For the Bible Tells Me So explores the intersection of religion and homosexuality in America today, concluding that, perhaps, hatred is the greatest abomination of all.” David Courier.”

 

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Guest Host Craig Detweiler interviews Roslilyn Heller, the producer of “Trade” at the Windrider Forum at Sundance film festival. (The interview is followed by audience questions and answers.) “Trade,” due for theatrical release on April 14, 2007, was inspired by a shocking true story, Trade is a gritty and undeniably disturbing film set in a sinister world where young, virginal children are kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. Adriana (Paulina Gaitan), a 13-year-old girl from Mexico City, is abducted by a Russian gang, one link in a global network that earns millions trafficking in human cargo. Adriana’s brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets out on a desperate mission to save her. Traversing perilous terrain between Mexico and the United States, Jorge meets Ray (Kevin Kline), a Texas cop who’s on his own mission to find a loved one lost to the sex trade. This mismatched duo form an unlikely bond as they track Adrianna’s kidnappers from the slums of Mexico City across the treacherous Rio Grande border to a secret Internet sex-slave auction, culminating in a showdown in the suburbs of New Jersey. Will Jorge and Ray find Adrianna before she is sold and vanishes forever? From a screenplay by Oscar-nominee Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries), Trade features standout performances by Kline and Ramos. Filmmaker Marco Kreuzpaintner, one of Germany’s leading young directors, makes a most-welcome, decidedly impressive American feature debut.” David Courier

 

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A Dick Staub Interview. When people ask me about my most memorable interviews, Art Buchwald is one that comes to mind. He died this week (January 17, 2007) and my thoughts immediately went to this interview taped September 10, 1996). This excerpt from the NYT Obit captures so much of what I enjoyed about this interview. “Once described as a “Will Rogers with chutzpah,” Mr. Buchwald found enthusiastic readerships on both sides of the Atlantic. Early on, he became nearly everyone’s favorite American in Paris for his satirical column in the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune. When he returned from overseas to write a new column, from Washington, he became even more popular. At its peak, it appeared in some 500 newspapers. He delighted in stirring the pot ” never maliciously, always vigorously. The world was mad (or at least a little nutty), he said, and all he was doing was recording it. He did it so well that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. ‘The joy of his column was not that it was side-splitting humor,’ his friend Ben Bradlee, the former editor of The Washington Post, said last February, ‘but that he made you smile.’” I defy you to listen to this interview and not smile at least once!

 

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A Dick Staub Interview. When people ask me about my most memorable interviews, Art Buchwald is one that comes to mind. He died this week (January 17, 2007) and my thoughts immediately went to this interview taped September 10, 1996). This excerpt from the NYT Obit captures so much of what I enjoyed about this interview. “Once described as a “Will Rogers with chutzpah” Mr. Buchwald found enthusiastic readerships on both sides of the Atlantic. Early on, he became nearly everyone’s favorite American in Paris for his satirical column in the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune. When he returned from overseas to write a new column, from Washington, he became even more popular. At its peak, it appeared in some 500 newspapers. He delighted in stirring the pot ” never maliciously, always vigorously. The world was mad (or at least a little nutty), he said, and all he was doing was recording it. He did it so well that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. ‘The joy of his column was not that it was side-splitting humor,’ his friend Ben Bradlee, the former editor of The Washington Post, said last February, ‘but that he made you smile.’” I defy you to listen to this interview and not smile at least once!

 

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A Dick Staub Interview. When people ask me about my most memorable interviews, Art Buchwald is one that comes to mind. He died this week (January 17, 2007) and my thoughts immediately went to this interview taped September 10, 1996). This excerpt from the NYT Obit captures so much of what I enjoyed about this interview. “Once described as a “Will Rogers with chutzpah,”  Mr. Buchwald found enthusiastic readerships on both sides of the Atlantic. Early on, he became nearly everyone’s favorite American in Paris for his satirical column in the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune. When he returned from overseas to write a new column, from Washington, he became even more popular. At its peak, it appeared in some 500 newspapers. He delighted in stirring the pot ” never maliciously, always vigorously. The world was mad (or at least a little nutty), he said, and all he was doing was recording it. He did it so well that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. ‘The joy of his column was not that it was side-splitting humor,’ his friend Ben Bradlee, the former editor of The Washington Post, said last February, ‘but that he made you smile.’” I defy you to listen to this interview and not smile at least once!

 

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A Dick Staub Interview. When people ask me about my most memorable interviews, Art Buchwald is one that comes to mind. He died this week (January 17, 2007) and my thoughts immediately went to this interview taped September 10, 1996). This excerpt from the NYT Obit captures so much of what I enjoyed about this interview. “Once described as a “Will Rogers with chutzpah,” Mr. Buchwald found enthusiastic readerships on both sides of the Atlantic. Early on, he became nearly everyone’s favorite American in Paris for his satirical column in the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune. When he returned from overseas to write a new column, from Washington, he became even more popular. At its peak, it appeared in some 500 newspapers. He delighted in stirring the pot ” never maliciously, always vigorously. The world was mad (or at least a little nutty), he said, and all he was doing was recording it. He did it so well that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. ‘The joy of his column was not that it was side-splitting humor,’ his friend Ben Bradlee, the former editor of The Washington Post, said last February, ‘but that he made you smile.’” I defy you to listen to this interview and not smile at least once!

 

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