Heart of the Beholder

I can't say the animated teaser trailer makes it look very good, but the story behind the feature film Heart of the Beholder is nonetheless interesting.

Mike and Diane Howard (not their real names, but the events are apparently based on a true story) were targeted by right-wing Christian fundamentalists for ruin when they carried The Last Temptation of Christ in their St. Louis video store. A group called Citizens for Decency went so far as to blackmail a prosecutor (who was vulnerable to a sex scandal) to try to destroy the Howards using the RICO statute.

Some filmmakers turned the couple's harrowing experiences into a movie proposal that they pitched as "Rocky meets the religious right." But, according to the site, Heart of the Beholder was too "controversial" for traditional studios.

Having failed for ten years to get the movie made within the closed system of Hollywood, the filmmakers opened up the production on the Internet. You can read the script, submit your own musical work for consideration, volunteer to be an extra on the film, even leave an email or phone message that others can access publicly (check out Deanna from Arizona's rant here).

Apparently the production team, led by veteran TV exec Darlene Lieblich, tried financing the movie by pre-selling DVDs at retail and raised over $400,000. Impressive, but it wasn't enough, so they returned the money and started over with private financing. Production will apparently start soon, if it hasn't already. Specific details--such as a production schedule and even the names of the principal cast and crew--are not available on the site, and I don't blame them.

I hope the movie is better than the Flash trailer, because it looks like they have one hell of a story to work with.

I've long thought about making a movie centered on my own past experiences with Christian fundamentalist indoctrination. Although I'm an atheist, religion still seems to shadow me like that pale, hooded guy in The Passion of the Christ. It's a fascinating topic, and the more I think about it the more it seems that independent film is the only means by which religion is going to be examined in a serious way in cinema. Even something as relatively inoffensive as Dogma was too hot for Miramax to handle. (By "relatively inoffensive," I mean relative to the project I have in mind.)

Once it becomes possible to distribute a feature film widely without having to put an entire company on the hook for the consequences (boycotts, violence), we could see some of the topics Hollywood is afraid of get more serious and deeper treatment, however, in the same way that independent publishers have done on the Internet.

Figuring out how to make and distribute a feature film while remaining anonymous would be even better. I doubt it could be done, but there's a reason that neither you nor I know who The Raving Atheist is. There are people out there who think that murder is a justifiable response to some of the things the RA says. It would be interesting to see what movies would get made if fear were a less significant part of the equation.

(via Atrios)