ArtPrize and a Challenging Breadwinner: CT Entertainment

[Also: Recommendations from Christianity Today's critics] Also: Recommendations from Christianity Today's critics | [View online]( [ChristianityToday.org]( [Christianity Today Entertainment Newsletter]( Friday, December 01, 2017 ArtPrize and a Challenging Breadwinner Each week CT's critics offer suggestions for art and entertainment they found encouraging, valuable, or reflective of the good, the true, and the beautiful in God's world. Not every suggestion is suitable for everyone, and each reader is encouraged to investigate ratings and content warnings for each suggestion. Have suggestions of your own? [Let us know](mailto:tolsen@christianitytoday.com?subject=CT%20Entertainment%20suggestion). —Ted Olsen, Editorial Director More Art Upstairs | Documentary Jody Hassett Sanchez's chronicle of 2015's iteration of ArtPrize works on two levels. It is an enjoyable, if unconventional, contest documentary. We follow several of the entrants into one of the world's largest and most eclectic art competitions. Perhaps we develop favorites for whom we have a rooting interest, but even if we don't there is still the suspense of any contest: who is going to win? It also works as a reflection about the contest itself. ArtPrize has winners selected by a jury of specialists, but it also awards prizes to winners of a public vote. Which is more prestigious? Which should be? Are artists willing to work the crowd, endlessly answering the same questions or spouting the same informative narratives about their process and their art's meaning? Should they be? More Art Upstairs is not marketed specifically to Christian audiences, but because ArtPrize takes place in Grand Rapids, some of the art explores religious themes in a non-ironic or cynical manner. And because so much of the art is presented outside the confines of a museum, the contest challenges our notions of what art is and what public function it serves. — [Kenneth R. Morefield]( [DOC NYC Festival] The Breadwinner | Film Every year there are one or two films that are so painful to watch they are hard to recommend. Tyrannosaur, Persepolis, and Newtown are all examples of films that I rated highly but that depict the depths of cruelty humans can inflict on one another. The Breadwinner is another. An animated film about an Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy when her father is imprisoned by the Taliban, The Breadwinner actually convicted me about how infrequently I remember to pray for "the least of these" when they are members of different faiths or cultures. The intensity and frequency of the hatred some of the men display towards the women in the film is viscerally jarring. Yet there are other men, including the protagonist's father, who are gentle. "When I was younger, I knew what peace felt like." Ironically, he was a teacher of the film's villain, who argues that "you wasted my time teaching me things of no worth." The Breadwinner is not a film about the conflicts between Islam and Christianity. Instead, it reminds us that those who suffer the most at the hands of people who corrupt and misrepresent their religion's teachings are usually other members of the same faith. — [Kenneth R. Morefield]( [In Theaters] [Charles Dickens Still Haunts Christmas]( How a 19th-century story informs the modern holiday spirit. Laura Kenna ['Wonder' Reveals the Face of True Human Strength]( What the box-office hit tells us about beauty, weakness, and the imago Dei. Micha Boyett ['Justice League' Unites Its Heroes to Save an Erratic, Uneven World]( DC's answer to the MCU wants to show that surrounding darkness can only strengthen heroic light. It only kind of succeeds. E. Stephen Burnett [Do We Need Another Denzel Washington Christ Figure?]( CT asks the actor about his latest movie and Hollywood's ongoing quest to score the faith audience. Alicia Cohn Follow Us [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Google+]( [RSS]( [Subscribe to this newsletter]( IN THE MAGAZINE [Current Issue]( [Cover Story: Blessed Are the Handouts]( [In Defense of Pro-Life 'Hypocrisy']( [Cheering China's Urbana: Churches Poised to Become Major Exporters]( [View Full Issue]( [Subscribe Now]( More from Christianity Today [A Drug Dealer Led Me to Faith]( After a childhood marred by substance abuse and a deadbeat dad, I made a friend who would change my life. [Digging Down Deep into Protestant-Catholic Differences]( Two books—one Catholic, one Protestant—show how the conversation should be engaged. [For Andrew Peterson, Creating Art Means Facing His Fear of Being Known]( The singer-songwriter and author reflects on a long career of finding holy hope in the face of self-doubt. 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