Thomas Purifoy, Jr., is the writer and director behind Modern Parables: Living in the Kingdom of God, an innovative series of short films that illustrate the parables of Jesus Christ in a series of modern settings. The films are part of a teaching curriculum of the same name and are available through the website www.modernparable.com, but they stand on their own as films, too. One of the films, Samaritan, recently won the "Best Narrative" award at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.

Infuzemag.com talked to Thomas about this first volume of Modern Parables, what drives him as a filmmaker, and where his production company, Compass Cinema, will go from here.

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Tell me about your background, and how you got started as a filmmaker.
I was involved in -- I'm from Arkansas -- I was involved in Bill Clinton's Governor's School, back when he was governor. It was a six-week summer school for unusual kids from around the state. I took the class on film and literature. I had never considered film as a source of critical study, and we watched classic films -- Citizen Kane, and many others. When I got back home, I rented film after film and watched great films all summer long, three or four per day.

At some point I rented Ingmar Bergman's films, and these showed me how you could explore religious beliefs in film. He's not a Christian, but he dealt with profound spiritual and religious concerns in his films.

I became a filmmaker after wandering around doing a bunch of different things for a number of years. I graduated from Vanderbilt in 1994, then I joined the Navy, where I was a Surface Warfare Officer. I spent two years onboard a ship, then worked for a year and a half with a Special Boat Unit and the Navy SEALs. After I got out of the Navy, I took about a year to pursue my interest in filmmaking. I went to California to study with Act One, and was part of that very first group of writers. From there, I got recruited to go to France and teach as a missionary. I worked in a missionary school in Lyons, and was married the last year I was there, before we came back to the U.S. Then I took a job doing marketing for a company, and my boss there knew I had some interest in film. He asked if I could do a marketing movie for a new product that they were offering, so I said I would and went and talked to a friend of mine. I asked him, "How do you become a producer?" And his answer was: "You start producing." It's like, "How do you climb a mountain?" Well, there's a mountain over there -- go climb it!

I wrote a script for Samaritan and directed and produced it because I had no one else to do it. Some friends here in Nashville gave us the money to do a first film, and we shot Samaritan in April 2006. We took that, went through post-production, and got some early feedback -- all my stuff is student work. I'm still very inexperienced. The goal of these films is to be entertaining and instructive. But I certainly still have a lot to learn.


From what I read at the website, the idea for Modern Parables was hatched in your college dorm room. Tell me a bit about how that happened, and what it took to get it from an idea to a reality.
I was living in the philosophy dorm at the time ... And over a period of months, it came to me. What pushed me to put it to paper was -- I had the idea, and a friend and I were invited to an apologetics group out of town -- the campus minister was asked to go speak about what was going on at college campuses and to bring a few students along. We thought we'd write a paper to present to these men. Well, it didn't quite go over the way we'd thought, and it wound up sitting at that stage, in rudimentary form, for about 10 years. We called the project "postmodern parables" at first, as that was kind of trendy in the early '90s. So, it wasn't an epiphany so much as it was an idea that grew over time, and took on more layers as it developed.

The basic idea was to create a universal Bible study, for all denominations, all backgrounds, to drive people back to the original text. At this time, I was reading Anthony Thiselton -- a writer on Christian hermeneutics. He was writing on hermeneutic techniques, such as audience response criticism, multi-perspectivalism, and various interpretational schemes. I realized that people look through their own lenses when they watch a film, too. I was influenced by Cornelius van Til, the way everyone brings presuppositions to any experience.  I felt it was the same with film. The idea with the parable films is that a non-Christian will not bring Christian baggage to the film, but hopefully will be intrigued by the film to go to the text and take a fresh look. The Christian, on the other hand, will be looking at the film through a Christian lens, but will now see an old story from a fresh point of view.

When you first conceived of the idea for Modern Parables as a film project, did you envision it in its current scope, or did the project grow as you developed it?
No, the kernel came first, although the heart of the study -- that the films would point people to the Bible - was always the goal. But other pieces came to the idea over time. The application speakers -- that came from the "knowing and doing" aspect of applying the Scripture we learn to our lives. I think the pastoral office is very important, and the office isn't as respected as it should be. The importance of having a pastor interpret the Word of God and apply it to people's lives was critical to me, and I wanted to have a strong pastoral influence in the project.

We're not trying to do anything new here; I'm not an iconoclast. You see what Rob Bell's doing with Nooma, and others, and there's a lot of great stuff out there. You can see how the application video works in that sort of concept. I didn't want to use just a talking head, but something that extended into the form and content of the film itself, and beyond.

I think form and content are important. My view of film is that film creates an emotional response in people, and strong emotional associations. That's why we used some of the same sets for the pastors to apply the parable and explicate the Scripture text. So we used the film as the "B roll" to connect the emotions. The goal is to take what people already understand, and shift it, to connect the truths of the teaching to the experience of the film. The layers are intricately set on each other so they can all work together.

The initial level is the narrative of the film. Then there are the Biblical parallels, where the teacher comes in. Then there is the symbolic application, the theology underneath it all, where the pastor comes in.

If the movies are about the Bible, then the whole set is about the Kingdom of God. That's what the parables are about. These aren't just great example stories, but explorations of  Jesus' Kingdom theology.  

One of the most striking aspects of the films is the total professionalism of the production. These films stand on their own, as art. How did you find financing for such an ambitious project that doesn't necessarily "fit" traditional ministry concepts?
We got it financed through friends and family -- angel investors, really. Simply put, the films are private investments from folks who want to advance the Kingdom and see a return on their money.

We had to go with private investment; we could never do it nonprofit, because we couldn't raise enough money. Film is a business, and Hollywood has demonstrated that you have to operate on that model so you can create the level of quality that you need to capture people's imaginations. You can be sincere all day long, but people have certain standards of production quality they expect to see on screen. We had to meet cinematic quality, to respect film as art.

How did you go about casting and finding the behind-the-camera talent to create these films?
We didn't have that much money, yet we wanted these to stand on their own, as individual short films.

A certain amount of money is required to attain a certain level of quality. It takes a certain minimum to get the kind of talent you need. For example, our director of photography has over 20 years of experience. We didn't scrimp on actors, either. We got some of the best actors in Nashville. It helps that we're a non-union state, but everyone came out and worked for us -- a lot of folks involved in the Repertory Theatre, and theatre work throughout the city. The production designer has 15 years or so of experience, the makeup artist has 30 years ... I looked for talented people who had gray hair, so to speak.

We just had a great team. The acting coach did superior work, too -- also very experienced. I kind of knew what I wanted, but needed experienced professionals to help us make this a reality.

The Lord was very gracious to us throughout this process. Filmmaking is sort of like farming. A lot of variables you can't control. Yet we never lost a day of shooting. Even some of our crew said, "I've never seen it go this well." Everything just kind of worked, and we never had any hiccups. Everything came in on budget, and that's the Lord's blessing.

When we shot The Sower -- Mr. Dement is so articulate. We had an amazing amount of footage of him, because he was just so natural. The initial idea was to do six narrative films, and we wanted to do one film about making a film. I just didn't have the dramatic ability to pull this off in 15 minutes, a film that covers four different time periods, with different characters, etc. When we were scouting locations, I called the state agricultural extension service, and they told us about Rutherford County and gave me Joe Jack Dement's name.  Meeting him gave me the idea for the documentary style, and in explaining how he grew his wheat, it made it work. The day before we shot, we had this big crew -- and then I cut it down to just five of us. I paid everyone who was scheduled, but used only five people.

Filmmaking is about going with your gut more times than not. Fascinating man, Mr. Dement. The Lord really brought him into our path. When we were shooting this -- we shot in early March -- we knew we'd probably need to shoot three times. Well, we got a horrible late freeze here that killed all the wheat. All the wheat had turned brown. Across the street, some neighbors had sown their field two weeks later, so their wheat wasn't as badly damaged. So the last two shoots, we shot there, in their field. So we "cheated" there a little, and they were very kind to let us shoot. He lost all his wheat to that frost and had to sell it all as hay. A little bit of sleight of hand there!

Who wrote the scripts? Directed?
I handled all of that.

Where did you find all these locations for shooting?
Location scouting is a funny thing. I wanted to do the research myself and had folks help out, but a lot of times a story will take shape from a location. A location is often 50 to 60 percent of your film's feel, and my DP had a strong influence on this. [French director] Jean Renoir was like that, apparently -- very influenced by his externals.

For example, finding the right courthouse [for The Widow & Judge] -- the one we used was literally the oldest courthouse in the state. I interviewed a judge -- that's actually him playing the first man who approaches the film's judge - to figure out the details of the script. When we saw that courthouse, we formed the story around that, and the location drove that one. We shot that one in Tennessee.

For The Shrewd Manager, we found a location in Kentucky that was perfect.  One of our production assistants' mother grew up in that small town.  They just opened their doors for us. We stumbled across that field in Hidden Treasure, and adjusted the writing for it. Getting things real, getting things honest, is critically important.

We shot Prodigal Sons for three days in NYC and five days in Nashville. We flew a crew of 10 up there. The crew was great -- we hired some folks up there, and some of my friends from the city were very helpful; they are used to working with independent filmmakers. God was good to us there, too -- the weather cooperated, and everything fell into place.

How long did it take, from screenwriting to post-production, to create each of these films?
We shot Samaritan in April 2006 and had it through post-production by June, so it was two to three months for that one. The other five, we had to raise the funding on these for about six months, then started pre-production in February 2007.  Actual production began in the middle of March, and we filmed one every two to three weeks through May. We finished up with post-production at the end of August, and had everything printed and ready to go by October 1.

For all the other materials, it helped that I'd had my own marketing company and had worked with good designers before. Getting it all written and done on time was a bit of a bear, as far as the student book and teacher's guide went, but we finished it all in September.

I've been a Sunday school teacher for 15 years. All this is is just a Sunday school class on steroids. I've had to write curriculum at the last minute many times, and I had to do a lot of writing in college, as an English major. I got used to writing really quickly, and my friend Jonathan Rogers did the professional editing.

How did you get the pastors and professors involved with this project?
We did that separately -- we came back and shot those. Dan Doriani and Craig Blomberg were our theological advisors on this, both of whom were indispensable to the project. They always gave me great theological direction and insight. Dan and George Grant, Scotty Smith, I knew these gentlemen and they were very gracious to get involved. Some wanted a tight script, and others wanted a general outline.

 

Most of them are pastors of big churches and graciously made time to work on this with us. George Grant and Gene Mims have been in front of the camera a lot, but not all of them had had as much experience, or it had been a while since they had been on camera. It was a great privilege to have them be a part of this. I was really honored to work with them.

Why do you think film is such a potent medium for telling these "modernized" versions of Christ's parables?
Film is an effective medium for communicating things in its own way, in a way no other medium can communicate. Film engages the emotions in a way that few other mediums can do. It is not good for everything, but what it is good at -- telling stories -- it does well. Incredibly well. Since the parables are simply stories, they work nicely in the film medium. And since the parables are meant to affect our emotions, the modernizations make them a bit more accessible to our contemporary emotional makeup. We're supposed to get them in the gut, where I think Jesus wanted all His listeners to feel it.

I was fascinated by the cinematic discussions in the Teacher's Guide, and noticed that each film was influenced by a prominent filmmaker -- Orson Welles, Frank Capra, Ingmar Bergman, et al. How did you arrive at a particular style as homage for each of these parable films?
I liked being able to take a director and study his work, because there's so much depth to these old films. The directors I chose for this series are some of my personal favorites. Also, since I'm a "freshman" at this, it gives me a way to show my love for the medium.

Are there plans to develop more Modern Parables, or other Biblical narratives?
We're hoping to get four sets out of this series, and to continue to adapt techniques from these great directors along the way in telling these stories on film. We also have a lot of other ideas for teaching tools that use film as a way to teach people about the Bible and Christianity. I'm not sure who all we'll do in the next series, but we'll continue to pair a director's style with the story itself.

Did Compass Cinema come into being alongside Modern Parables, or is it an entirely separate entity?
It's a separate entity. Compass Cinema is my company with another friend, we're co-owners. That's the production company we're using to do this work, and we hope to do more curriculum series. I have to have some vehicle to do that with, and we hope to produce more curriculum materials and perhaps some feature stuff, too. I have another 10 ideas that can follow this format, and we're looking at movie possibilities, too.

What other projects are coming down the pike for Compass Cinema?
We hope to have Modern Parables Volume II out by the end of next year. We'll get the funding rolling for that pretty soon. And I have ideas for doing something on the Beatitudes, too. I'd like to pair up with some ministries to do something on worldviews, the persecution of the modern church, and some more church-focused projects, more ecclesiological projects. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us.

You can watch the full-length film Samaritan, as well as the accompanying application video, at the Modern Parables website. You can also order the film there, as well. (Order by Dec. 24, and you can receive 10 percent off the purchase price by entering COMPASSION in the coupon box at checkout. What's more, Compass Cinema will donate $10 to Compassion International if you order by that date.)

Tim Challies' review and discussion of the films are here. Be sure to scroll down and read the comments, in addition to Tim's review.

 

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