Nine Kinds of Stories the Faith-Based Film Industry Needs Right Now

So, what kinds of films and stories do we REALLY need these days? Another "important" political Hollywood film? Another "important" political PureFlix film?

How about "no?"

But what about another feminist virtue-signal film, or another PureFlix or Hallmark soccer mom film?

Also a big NOPE.

Here on the Cultural Warfare podcast, I discuss these subjects with some depth.

As Loor.TV CEO (and former PureFlix marketing guy) Marcus Pittman says, faith-Based films are like "bad horror films," but without the... "reinvesting to make something better," as he calls it. YouTuber, Ryder the Omniscient, quotes him here, and I reference this entire discussion in my episode 39 episode, above.

Ryder gives a great example of the kind of film that we need more of, referencing the Denzel Washington film, The Book of Eli, as a positive effort in his video below.

The Collision on YouTube, also gives us a brief discussion on the purpose of faith-based film, using The Forge as an example.

But how do we make better faith-based film if we've never worked in Hollywood, and don't know how to get better? Loor.TV talks to Adam Yenser about what's called "the preaching to the choir problem," & how to improve the faith-based film industry.

A: Send it out into the world.

Ryder and Loor certainly have great solutions, but as it comes to what to make if you aren't quite at the level of making an action film, and maybe you want other options for what will effect society for the best, I have a list of movie genres below. Genres that may be down your alley, or may be something that gets your juices flowing to make a real difference in the world.

So, let's goooo.

Traditionally, there are eight major genres of film, along with some (at times) popular variations, or subgenres, such as westerns or musicals. Obviously westerns and musicals point us to the transient and variable tastes we see in society. So, let's pay attention to what might be popular and speak loudly today.

The eight genres are: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Thriller, Horror, RomCom, and Documentary. The faith-based genre can double as either a drama, comedy, or romcom, and sometimes a biopic, docudrama, or a mild thriller. But it ought to be able to double as almost any genre if we consider what faith-based, as a term, really means.

It's supposed to be a form of expression for Christian filmmakers to be able to speak to the audience that they feel God is telling them to speak to. The resultant film ought to be able to speak to whatever demographic we feel God is leading us to reach out to, or communicate to.

As Paul says, "We become all things to all men, so that we may win some." We're not just here to preach at a choir, but if we do speak to the church, what shall we say? And if we do seek to reach some group or niche, which group do we seek to speak to and why? How we say it becomes subservient to our God-given calling to us to reach out through our craft as artists and filmmakers. It's not subservient to the marketplace demands, nor should we allow it to be.

So, I give you the eight, and an additional one, to help point where I think I feel God is leading me to look. Obviously I can't personally make nine films now to meet these needs, but what I can do is point out to you what I'm feeling, and why.

Here are my categories of the nine types of faith-based films we need now.

1. Tense thrillers with purpose.
2. Grounded Civilization-building adventure.
3. Violent Action films that deal out Justice, sometimes harshly.
4. Cautionary Tales that tackle the strange and macabre nature of evil.
5. Satirical roasting of timely social issues.
6. Meaningful tone poems that depict losing and longing for authentic relationship.
7. Revealing of God's scientific and natural truths.
8. Relational Dramas that respect every side of a social issue, revealing truth.
9. Fairy Tales & otherworldly Journeys that reveal deep inner truths of God.

So, the ninth kind of film I mention is derived from the genre which the Inklings, CS Lewis & JRR Tolkien, called Mythopoeia. It often takes the shape of an epic fantasy or sci-fi or fairy tale that brings you into another world which has our own values reflected and communicated in it, often more astutely than it could be without that world.

It's like an instantly created modern myth, that carries relevant values in it. You could call it a Sci-fi, a Fantasy, or an Adventure that has that very particular, and very complete world-building quality to it. Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, as well as films like Star Wars, have reflected this genre very well. Film history's biggest franchises have tended to be of the Mythopoeic variety, because so much can be spun off from them, due to such effective world-building. And yet, what Mythopoeia offers is a strong foundation of value-building undergirding that world. That is the mythological mezzanine that the most long-lasting stories are constructed upon.

So, if we already make these kinds of stories, and they could be like an adventure, why lay out a whole new category to focus on?

That's the rub, isn't it? What do we focus on and why?

Considering that faith-based film has been the most inflexible and uncreative film genre, failing to even place in the top ten of popular genres of film, we must understand why this is. "Faith-based" film, as a two decades-long trend, is a fairly unimpressive genre. And many have stated this in the past, but I think it bears repeating that the genre should be retired for the simple reason that it is too restrictive to Christian artists, owing to the fact the kinds of stories, characters, and myths that get created are somewhat lackluster, unmemorable, and transparently propagandistic.

What we see now in the genre should (in my view) simply be renamed a Christian drama, romcom, comedy, or biopic. In the future, there should be nothing "wrong" with calling a film Christian per se (check for bonafides), but in addition to this, Christian filmmakers should (and as we know, can) work to compete in the regular market of films. This means that Christians who choose not to identify their film as a Christian-made film should not find themselves subject to criticism by fellow Christians. Because a fair understanding for why that filmmaker is not attaching the label to the film's marketing should be extended.

This means that Christians who choose not to identify their film as a Christian-made film should not find themselves subject to criticism by fellow Christians

This ought to be a simple matter. The fact is, there is nothing wrong with identifying or marketing your film in either way, since the marketing for your film is for finding your intended audience, not just for making money, or for virtue signaling to your own tribe (propaganda). And that simple fact ought to be more clearly known by critics, or the public, all benefit of the doubt applied as necessary.

Marketing films for middle-aged soccer moms is frankly not a great move for many reasons. I believe it reflects the backwards thinking of the ideologically-driven Hollywood studios instead of seeing the market for what it's been for a hundred years, a male-driven industry, by far.

Hollywood has been leaving the young single men in the lurch to fend for themselves for almost two decades. This is not because research shows the audience is overwhelmingly female, no. This is because of ideologically woke agendas that seek to arbitrarily change the marketplace using top-down approaches.

It's an agenda. And they will find research that tells them what they want to hear, and publish it, just like they did with theatrical ticket sales, even though digging farther will reveal the truth. The male-driven film does better in the market, and it's not even that hard to find the evidence of this.

This means what we can keep some of the female-driven work, sure, but we should also focus MORE of male-driven content, because that's who needs it. I mean: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, Westerns, Fantasy, and hard-boiled Crime Thrillers. These ought not simply be for the aesthetic beauty of the story, but for the practical understanding of some social issue that has been neglected or misunderstood.

Many of these issues, such as the one tackled by Sound of Freedom from last year, are the ones that men can really learn something good from. Men love to protect our communities, and we love to solve issues. Films like Sound of Freedom do that, and films like Dirty Harry, did that for us before in the 70's and 80's.

The crime surge in the late 70's was tackled by this expression of culture. Muscle-bound justice lovers like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Van Damme came in eventually, but before then, the violent vigilantes like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and others splattered the screen with blood. And people like Rudy Giuliani turned this into a government philosophy in NYC, turning that city around.

You don't shrink from challenges. You rise to meet them with culture. And then policy follows that astute and meaningful cultural expression.

If you want to hear the rationale for each of my genre choices, not just the action movies, and the thrillers, watch the Cultural Warfare episode above. I lay out each additional genre and why it is relevant.

We need to change the world, and we can only do that if we get a new vision on how to communicate about these issues we see in society. Really great films, art, music, and culture-building are the way to do this!

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What did you think, of this article? Did you agree with our choices on the kinds of genres we think will be effective? Comment down below (with sub) or on our social media!