18 August 2010

Perseverance Perseverance- and Faith - Pays Off for Waskom County Couple

“It was definitely a culture shock for many, and about 500 people got up and walked out before the first song was finished. But that meant that about 1,500 people stayed." - Filmmaker Ken Bryan on the Drums Of Thunder project

By PATRICK BUTLER, ResonateNews.com

   Perseverance paid off for an East Texas couple whose film “Drums of Thunder: One Night For God,” will be screened at the Phoenix International Art Festival that begins Aug. 23. The Thursday showing of "Drums" at the festival is also a bit of vindication for the instincts of the filmmakers to capture “the anointing” of an event that hundreds walked out of, a potentially devastating event.

   Ken Bryan said he, “went out on a limb” in 2007 when he filmed an evidently controversial Native American presentation of dance and music offered to Christ in Shreveport, La. About 500 people of an audience, Bryan said, of about 2,000, got  up and walked out when the Native drums began pounding out a beat that went beyond what is normally heard at so-called “Christian” events.
    But that was precisely why Bryan and his wife, Ginny – who were the film’s executive producers - wanted the evening captured.
  “We wanted to reveal the unusual, genuine approach to the Gospel that Native North Americans bring to the standard, almost – rote-like music – American Christians have become accustomed to,” Bryan said.
  “We wanted to capture the anointing of this event to show those who couldn’t make the concert, or don’t know what is happening in the (modern) Native American church.”
  Bryan said he knew he had a “hot potato” in his hands when the cultural sounds of Native American and First Nation members would wash over the audience.   “It was definitely a culture shock for many,” Bryan said, “and about 500 people got up and walked out before the first song was finished. But that meant that about 1,500 people stayed, and they were the ones that got blessed.”
  Film Festival organizers said they are purposefully looking for a new sound. 
  “There is a sound in the earth. It is the sound of an emerging media army of creative, radical, righteous believers,” said festival organizer Patricia King of XP Media at the festival's Web site.  “The sound is God’s heartbeat. The sound is a voice for justice and righteousness. They sound is sound of heaven’s joy and ecstasy. Media is about sound.”
   The idea for their approximately hour-long film came late, Ken Bryan said. But as the concert date at the Shreveport, La., Civic Auditorium neared, the film project became something the couple felt they definitely had to take on.
      “We didn’t go into the concert and dance presentation thinking ‘film,’” said Bryan. “If we had known how much work it was going to be to get a quality production, we might not have done it. But we followed what we thought God was leading us to do. Connections with a professional film company were made, appeals were made, an entire seperate audio set up to record quality sound was installed. - the whole thing was done right."

   After post-production, the Byran's felt they had done the right thing, but wondered about the ultimate purposes the film might have. Three years later, Drums of Thunder is being shown at the Phoenix International Art Festival.

    "This is exactly why we took on the cost of organizing and producing the film; to show others, later, so they could share in what God is among Native peoples," Bryan said. 
  Obedience to God comes first, then understanding comes later – maybe, said Bryan.
  “If we had known how much it would take to film it – and the extra cost it would be to us – to get a quality production in place, it might have seemed to hard to do it," he said. “God sometimes doesn’t let you see how much is going to be involved or the effort required so you won’t be scared away from it.”
  The Phoenix International Christian Film Festival, presented by XP Media, runs from Monday, Aug. 23 to Saturday, Aug. 28 in Phoenix Arizona. More than 30 films are scheduled to be screened. Workshops and speakers abound reveals the festival’s Web site at www.christianfilmfest.org.
  To provide a platform for media “not limited to preaching” is the intent of the event Ms.  King said.
   “There is nothing wrong with a good Christian “preach” through film,” she said. “What the Lord is doing in this hour, however, is not limited to preaching…but is calling for the opening of the heart to the nations that will not even make the mention of his name or the scriptures. Still, the source is definitely Christ.”

Visit the Web at www.christianfilmfest.org for information about the Phoenix International Film Festival

Visit the Web at www.kenshire.org for information about the ministry of Ken and Ginny Bryan

---