search

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

Road-movie tour of the deep South

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
If David Lynch made a road documentary about the rural communities of the American South, it might look a great deal like Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus, Andrew Douglas' meditation on the nexus of music, poverty, and faith. Told with a minimum of dialogue, Douglas' documentary quietly unearths rough-hewn spirits of all kinds: in the rootsy folk/blues of its blisteringly talented musicians, in the alcohol of blue-collar bars that pepper the highways, and in the fire and brimstone of the region's home-grown religious faith, Pentecostal Christianity. Douglas sets his sights on the beautiful but harsh landscape, from the bayou country of Louisiana to the rocky foothills of Tennessee to the foreboding forests of Virginia. The entrancing cinematography is accompanied by what is, hands down, the best film score of 2004. Sitting next to the everyday people that Douglas often captures in their vulnerable moments are master roots musicians, including Johnny Dowd, The Handsome Family, 16 Horsepower, and Lee Sexton.

Harsh lives require harsh religions, and the explorations of Pentecostal faith are both eloquent and disturbing. Douglas, a British director of commercials working under the auspices of BBC Arena, naturally brings a cultural distance to an examination of The South that refines the film's wavering focus. The pervasiveness of religiosity is hammered home time and time again; under Douglas' watchful camera, even those hearty souls who reject the church and its teachings are unable to escape its reach. The fact that many of the participants in the film consider drinking a beer at a local tavern to be a virulent sin may stun more urbane viewers. As the inheritors of generations of poverty, religion has become the promise of more than an afterlife...it is the promise of a better existence. If these people speak in tongues, Douglas argues, who are we to say that God has not found them? (G. Shanks, Mixed Reviews)

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

Thu April 7, 2005, 7:00 & 9:00, Muenzinger Auditorium

UK/USA, 2003, in English, Color, 86 min, Unrated

recommend

Tickets

10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission. $7 w/UCB student ID, $7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus

International Film Series

(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.

First Person Cinema

(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.

C.U. Film Program

(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil Grillo.

Celebrating Stan

Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.

C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.

Thank you, sponsors!
Boulder International Film Festival
Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Looking for a gift for a friend?
Buy a Frequent Patron Punch Card for $60 at any IFS show. With the punch card you can see ten films (a value of $90).

We Want Your Feedback

Cox & Kjølseth
: Filmmaker Alex Cox & Pablo Kjølseth discuss film topics from their own unique perspectives.

Z-briefs
: Pablo and Ana share Zoom-based briefs on what's currently playing at IFS

Search IFS schedules

Index of visiting artists

Mon Apr 1, 2024

Hot Shots! Part Deux

At Muenzinger Auditorium

Sat Apr 20, 2024

Super Mario Bros.

At Muenzinger Auditorium

more on 35mm...