Beginnings Museum. Catholic priest
Athanasius Kircher promoted the
magic lantern by publishing the book
Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae in 1646. Controversy soon followed as
priests and
masons used the lanterns "to persuade followers of their ability to control both the forces of darkness and enlightenment," and temperance groups used the lanterns to fight
alcoholism. In the 1800s,
missionaries such as
David Livingstone used the lanterns to present the
Gospel in
Africa. Through the years, many Christians began to utilize motion pictures for their own purposes. In 1899,
Herbert Booth, as part of the
Salvation Army, claimed to be the first user of film for the cause of Christianity.
Spencer Williams's 1941
race film The Blood of Jesus was screened in cinemas and in Black churches. The film was produced in
Texas on a budget of US$5,000. To present the afterlife, Williams used scenes from a 1911
Italian film called ''
L'Inferno'' that depicted souls entering Heaven and in addition to Williams, the cast was made up of amateur actors and members of Reverend R. L. Robinson's Heavenly Choir, who sang the film's gospel music score. The film's commercial success enabled Williams to direct and write additional feature films for Sack Amusement Enterprises, including two films with religious themes:
Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (1942; now considered a
lost film) and
Go Down Death (1944). The 1971
Christploitation film If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? was based on a sermon by
Estus Pirkle held on January 31, 1968, at Camp Zion in
Myrtle Mississippi with the title "If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?". The sermon was made available by print, and Estus W. Pirkle joined with filmmaker
Ron Ormond in their first collaboration, and converted the sermon into a film. The pair made a number of other films together (
The Burning Hell in 1974 and ''The Believer's Heaven in 1977''), but this first film is the team's most well-known. The film became widely distributed among churches and church camps in the 1970s.
Movie theaters and film festivals Since
The Great Commandment opened in movie theaters in 1941, many Christian filmmakers have attempted to pursue theatrical releases. World Wide Pictures was a pioneer in partnering with churches to bring Christian films to the cinema. Gateway Films (now
Gateway Films/Vision Video) was "formed with the express purpose of communicating the Christian Gospel in secular motion picture theaters" and released
The Cross and the Switchblade in 1972. In 1979, the
Jesus film appeared in theaters across the United States. This film, based on the
Gospel of Luke, was made for $6 million by
Campus Crusade for Christ. In 1993, Tom Saab launched the
Merrimack Valley Christian Film Festival in
Salem, New Hampshire. Each year, this festival is held during
Easter week and draws an audience of thousands to a theater to watch Christian films for free. Saab's organization Christian Film Festivals of
America has also presented film festivals in
Salinas, California, and
Orlando, Florida. In October 1999, the Voice of Pentecost Church in
San Francisco hosted the first Annual
WYSIWYG Film Festival. Other Christian film festivals include the
San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, the
168 Hour Film Project, and the Redemptive Film Festival.
Recent years is a website that lists movies related to Christianity. Many Christian films have been released to theaters since that time, such as
The Omega Code (1999),
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001),
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002),
Facing the Giants (2006),
The Ultimate Gift (2007),
Amazing Grace (2007), the CGI animated version of
The Ten Commandments (2007),
Fireproof (2008),
The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (2009),
To Save a Life (2010), ''
Preacher's Kid (2010), Letters to God (2010), What If... (2010), The Grace Card (2011), Courageous (2011), October Baby (2012), Last Ounce of Courage (2012), Home Run (2013), Grace Unplugged (2013), I'm in Love with a Church Girl (2013), Son of God (2014), God's Not Dead (2014), Persecuted (2014), Old Fashioned (2015), Do You Believe? (2015), War Room (2015), Beyond the Mask (2015), I'm Not Ashamed (2016), I Can Only Imagine (2018), Breakthrough (2019), Overcomer (2019), and The Forge'' (2024). In 2006, nearly 50 Christian-faith films were produced. The films grossed an average of $39 million. All five of the major Hollywood studios have created marketing departments to target the growing demand for faith-based and family fare.
Movieguide publisher
Ted Baehr said, "There is competition for the Christian audience now that there hasn't been before. I thought at some point it would level off, but so far it's getting bigger and bigger. It's more than I could have possibly imagined. One of the audiences that has become stable and even grown for
books,
music and movies is the Christian audience." The proliferation of Christian movies and Christian films has led to the establishment of many
online retailers that focus their business exclusively on the sale and distribution of Christian movies and family-friendly films such as Parables.tv, Exploration Films based in Monument, Colorado, FishFlix.com,
ChristianCinema.com and ChristianMovies.com.
Parables TV also provides
streaming and
linear TV. In 2013, FishFlix.com opened the first ever DVD store devoted completely to Christian DVDs in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 2014 film ''
God's Not Dead is one of the most successful independent Christian films of all time and the 2015 film War Room'' became a
box office number-one film. == Christian film in Africa ==