Journey to the Lost Content ...
Celluloid Gospel will document the little-known untold story of a forgotten branch of film history that reflects how the Bible was communicated during the 20th century by means of film and television. The film will take audiences beyond the secular Hollywood studios and their biblical epics to discover a rich history of pioneer religious filmmakers and the independent Christian studios that thrived during the golden age of film and television.
Thousands of inspired and entertaining religious films were made during the past century, but have remained out of circulation and inaccessible to the public. This is because most exist only as deteriorating 16mm prints, owned by private film collectors and institutional archives. They have not as yet been digitally transferred and restored for broadcast, Internet and home video release.
Gospel Films Archive is a coalition of veteran producers and distributors with a passion to document the history of Christian filmmaking and share the films worldwide with both secular and religious audiences. For the past five years the GFA team has been tracking down and digitizing hundreds of these forgotten films. For the past year the GFA team has been in pre-production for a feature-length documentary titled:
The purpose of this fundraising campaign is to move from the development stage into the production stage. Celluloid Gospel has been mostly self-funded to this point, but help is now needed for travel, research, conversion of film clips to high definition, the filming of interview subjects located around the country, editing, publicity and other costs. Because few people are aware these films exist, finding an audience and the financial support for our mission has been a challenge.
Celluloid Gospel is not about Hollywood epics like King of Kings, The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur. Our story instead focuses on ten pioneer very independent and creative filmmakers, the studios they founded, and the industry they fostered while producing religious films for church, missionary work, early television, and the theatrical screen.
Many of these rare, neglected films with strong spiritual themes were crafted by Hollywood filmmakers expressly for Christian organizations. Other films, featuring familiar Hollywood faces, were produced for mainstream television and theatrical audiences. Fans of old movies and Bible history buffs will find them especially appealing. The content remains engaging and the films deserve preservation and rediscovery.
16mm film exchanges around the country distributed these films to churches and religious groups large and small. In the 1980s home video gained prominence, offering cheaper production and distribution methods. The Christian film studios and exchanges soon disappeared along with their film libraries. As a result, thousands of valuable vintage films and TV shows from the mid-20th century never found their way to VHS or DVD.
Join us on the Journey
The success of the Celluloid Gospel documentary will raise awareness of the cultural value of these films and TV programs and pave the way for our goal to digitize to high definition thousands of Christian films and TV shows. The growing popularity and success of retro TV channels like ME-TV, Antenna-TV and TCM leave no doubt there is renewed interest in vintage films of all genres. Yet the religious genre is not currently to be found on these secular channels.
Once completed we will submit the documentary to select secular and Christian film festivals. Gateway Films/Vision Video will be the exclusive worldwide non-theatrical distributor for DVD, broadcast, on-demand and streaming content. Income derived from the success of the Celluloid Gospel documentary will be used to continue tracking down and preserving thousands of lost and neglected Christian films and making them widely available to mainstream audiences and film historians alike.
Choose Your Reward
To express our gratitude for your help in documenting this fascinating but forgotten film history, we wish to
reward you with DVD collections of the films we are preserving. Please click the posters below to watch 8 trailers that will help you decide which to
choose as your reward(s).
How to Make Your Contribution
Christian Visual Association is Gospel Films Archive's 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor and all donations are tax deductible. Click the Donate button to make your payment using PayPal or credit/debit/bank card. In the “Add a Note” section simply list the DVD title(s) of your choice and the mailing address. Shipping is FREE and your item(s) will be shipped within two weeks of your contribution. Your delivery is guaranteed!
Meet the Celluloid Gospel Production Team
Read about the five-year history and progress of Gospel Films Archive thus far at our GFA website here. Key project participants include:
BOB CAMPBELL. Recognized as an authority in classic American film history and content, Bob is co-creator and producer of
Matinee at the Bijou (1980–88) one of PBS’s most popular original series. He is a Christian with a passion to organize and reissue as many worthy 20th-century Christian films, documentaries and TV shows as possible.
PAUL HERSH. The grandson of Family Films founder Sam Hersh and son of Stan Hersh (Sam’s successor), Paul began his apprenticeship at Family
Films when he was seven years old and later worked on the studio lot in the shipping and receiving department. He observed many productions on the Family
Films soundstage and serves as an executive producer of Celluloid Gospel. Meet Paul, Stan and Sam Hersh here,
and here.
JIM FRIEDRICH. The son of James K. Friedrich, the Rev. James L. Friedrich, is an executive producer of the Celluloid Gospel documentary and vital to telling
the story of Cathedral Films and his father's remarkable film legacy. Jim today is an itinerant Episcopal priest who writes a spirited journal called
The Religious Imagineer. Meet Jim and his pioneer filmmaker father here.
RON HALL. Founder and owner of Festival Films, a media company that provides vintage film and television shows to theaters, DVD markets, broadcast TV and online, Ron is a foremost authority on classic film and has been finding, restoring and distributing classic content for over 35 years.
DEREK MYERS. The founder and owner of Myers Memories and a TV industry veteran, Derek has been collecting 16mm original films for over 30 years.
He has a knack for finding lost and rare content and a passion for tracking down Christian-themed films and TV shows.
As a media producer at WGGS-TV, a Christian TV station in Greenville, SC, Derek provides public-domain TV shows and vintage features for their sister station.
Film Excerpts
The Cathedral Films Story. Watch a short mini-doc and read about the history of Cathedral Films and founder/producer James K. Friedrich HERE.
Family Films Sample Reel. Watch eight excerpts from the Family Films library and read about the history of Family Films and founder/producer Sam Hersh HERE.
Celebrity Reel. Since movies began, familiar Hollywood faces have helped tell “The greatest story ever told” on film. Here you can watch 14 brief clips featuring 20 popular stars from the golden age of Hollywood and TV.
Christian Movie Classics - GFA’s sister site streams over 70 films and TV shows for free. You can sample many of the films in this trailer and watch the full films HERE.
Help Free the Celluloid Captives!
If you cannot afford to contribute, there are other ways to help:
Ask friends and family members to help get the word out. Get them excited about these historic Christian films and our documentary project. Email them the link
to this campaign page. Share this page on Facebook.
Share our free Christian Movie Classics website with others so they can discover these wonderful films and TV shows and consider supporting our mission.
Contact anyone you know who might consider becoming a major donor for the Celluloid Gospel documentary.
If you have any questions, please contact Ron Hall at fesfilms@aol.com.