Artists who are actually interested in life: Part 1 in a series (I hope)

Now that we're settled in and online, I'm back to trolling all my old haunts: CNN, Entertainment Weekly...Christianity Today...

CT surpasses most Christian issue-and-media sites by being willing to talk about stuff, and not just stuff that all nice Christians agree on. It also surpasses most mainstream media outlets (and a lot of indies) by having four excellent film critics (and a few I feel are there mostly for their alternate viewpoints) on staff. As a result, CT's film reviews are, 9 times out of 10, strong, insightful, knowledgeable about the industry and its history, and, most of all, useful. Even if you only like to go to Christian websites to flame the message boards and fume and laugh at how stupid and intolerant you think everyone there is, as long as you're interested in movies I think you'd still appreciate the CT reviews page. They do everything from PG to R to NR, American and otherwise, fiction and non. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned them in this space before.

I mention them now because of a new indie film by Chad Allen, Save Me, a fiction that follows a gay drug addict (Allen) who hits rock-bottom (and the hospital) and is sent (enrolled? admitted?) by his brother to a group home that is a Christian ministry devoted to helping gay men become heterosexual. "Ex-gay" ministries, as they're known, are not something made up by Allen, but organizations that are increasingly common, and highly controversial in both the gay community and the church, and if you know any gay men, you probably know someone who's had contact with such groups.

What makes this film - which I haven't seen yet; it's not playing locally - interesting to me is not its controversial premise, but the interview Chad Allen gave to CT Movies. Allen was cast a few years ago to play a famous contemporary martyr, and when the production learned of his sexuality, they chose to defy stereotype and honour his contract, recognizing him as the best actor for the role, and accepted the subsequent backlash from many in the Christian community. In a win-win situation, the film retained a good actor, and Allen, immersed in a sea of Christians for 10+ hours a day over the course of the shoot, experienced the truth about Christians and Christianity. Stereotypes and misconceptions crumbled, discussions began, and the result was Save Me. Allen speaks in the interview of how it would have been easy to "play to the choir by making a film that said it was going to treat the subject fairly, and then not do that." The stated purpose of the film isn't to say that ex-gay ministries are bad and evil - quite the opposite, according to the interview, in spite of the fact that Allen doesn't believe in or agree with the idea of "gay-straight conversion". Artists of any stream and philosophy who are interested in true exploration and understanding are hard to come by, one of the many reasons I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to see this film.

If you have the opportunity to watch Save Me before I do, I hope you'll come here and tell me all about it. I certainly plan to watch it and revisit this post, whenever that may happen.