Antithesis and the Christian Filmmaker: Thoughts from Geoff Botkin
“In the late 1920s, the Hays Code committed Hollywood filmmakers to the responsibility of producing films that would be “directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct moral thinking.”
In departing from this responsibility, the modern cinema industry has departed from both culturally uplifting content and intellectually stimulating content. Habitual movie-goers have been compromised mentally as well as morally. Almost by default, the current Hollywood industry reinforces this feeblemindedness with each studio project.
Aspiring filmmakers who happen to be Christians seem to want to make superior films, but they tend to rely on current Hollywood trends and customs when they structure their creative energy. Because these filmmakers have grown up with Hollywood, too many aspiring Christian filmmakers are creating weak, inferior, culturally poisonous and financially wasteful projects. They want to be different from Hollywood, but they tend to “default” to the Hollywood method when structuring their projects.
The Academy exists to help filmmakers make a creative and cultural break with Hollywood once and for all. Academy faculty help students recover the lost traditions that will help them make vastly different films - films with cultural, moral and intellectual integrity. There exist traditions of the filmmaking craft which can provide the solid structural framework that can support the new cultural masterpieces. These structural elements, which include the sciences of art, theology and technology, represent the core curriculum at the San Antonio Christian Filmmaker’s Academy.”