Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus

About a month ago my buddy Chris Martin asked me if I wanted to participate in his Beyond Your Imagination podcast for this season. He told me we would select a group of films to watch and discuss. These are films that have been overlooked, older films, and films that may or may not have anything in common with each other but in our minds could be related.

Chris said he wanted to do mostly documentaries and asked if I had some films I wanted to talk about?

Boy did I!

We get together every few weeks after (re-)watching the films and have a spirited discussion. We’ve recorded three conversations so far and they have been great. Two weeks ago he posted an introduction to this season’s podcast series which you can find here - https://byi.show/cosmic-accidents-and-other-inciting-incidents-with-kelley-baker/

Today he just released the second of our conversations about a documentary not a lot of people have even heard of, let alone seen. I didn’t know about it until a friend of mine (Jeff Pollard) told me about it and loaned me his copy. I was so blown away by it that I went on-line and found my own copy.

What film am I talking about? Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus.

Here’s what Chris has written for this weeks episode…

How do you know you’re getting the real story when you go someplace new? If you’re a documentarian, how do you tap into the reality that stories are everywhere, as long as you have the key, the very object that provides access to the storytellers?

In Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, directed by Andrew Douglas, the South came alive with a 1970 Chevrolet Impala. @angryfilmmaker brought this film to my attention as an example of a movie that immediately makes you question, “What the hell is going on here?” It messes with the documentary form, makes you work to understand the underlying meaning, let alone who the people in the film are, and speeds beyond stereotypes.

Ultimately, it is a film that many people will not like, will struggle to even see because of its limited availability, but should experience. If you need a shot of artistic courage, this film represents the guts required to make a film the way the director wants to.

Yes, the film is hard to find which is too bad. It deserves to be seen. We take a trip through the Southern United States with musician Jim White. He shows us so many facets of the area. We’re introduced to some amazing artists and others, and hear some really interesting stories and music.

What we don’t get are any facts or statistics. We get a feeling. This doc pushes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking as some things are staged and the film is incredibly visual. In fact some purists probably wouldn’t even call it a documentary. Yeah I’m looking at you Ken Burns!

But to be dismissive of this film because it’s not a traditional documentary is just wrong. As someone who has toured a lot through the South and has a lot of really good friends who live there, I feel it’s more realistic about that part of the country than any other doc I have seen about the South. I have screened the film dozens of times now and feel like I get something different out of it every time I watch it.

It is a film that a lot of people may not like or as Chris stated, this film “as an example of a movie that immediately makes you question, “What the hell is going on here?”.

Please check out our conversation at https://byi.show/searching-for-the-wrong-eyed-jesus-with-kelley-baker/

After you listen to our conversation and think the film is something you might enjoy, you’re going to have to do a little digging to find it streaming someplace, or on DVD, but in my mind it’s worth it. A film that all filmmakers should have in their collection.

Chris Martin is an amazing fellow and you should all follow him on Instagram which will lead you to his other websites.

I hope you check it our podcast and come back every other week to hear what the hell we’re talking about this time?

Please support Independent Artists!

For those that are interested, you can stream my films and filmmaking workshops at https://angryfilmmaker.com/all/films

Thanks for reading.

Head over to my website www.angryfilmmaker.com

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