Marketing the Messiah

Last updated

Marketing the Messiah
Marketing the messiah.jpg
Release poster
Directed byCameron Reilly
Written byCameron Reilly
Produced byTorsten Hoffmann
Darren Vukasinovic
StarringCameron Reilly
Edited byMarcus Machen
Music byJofre Horta Antoniou
Production
company
Deep Dive Documentaries
Distributed byFanForce (Australia, event cinema)
Release date
  • March 2020 (2020-03)
(Australia)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Marketing the Messiah is a 2020 Australian documentary film written and directed by Cameron Reilly. The film reconstructs the early formation, textual development, and diffusion of Christianity using interviews with twelve academic specialists in New Testament studies and ancient history, intercut with Renaissance art and animation. Reilly appears on camera as presenter. Initial screenings occurred via FanForce event cinema in March 2020, followed by digital release on FanForce TV and subsequent availability on additional platforms including Apple TV, Youtube, and Amazon Prime Video. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Synopsis

The film presents a secular historiography of Christian origins oriented around philological and historical-critical scholarship. It foregrounds questions of authorship, dating, redactional layering, and the evolution of Christology in the New Testament corpus, with attention to tensions between Pauline communities and the Jerusalem apostles and to subsequent institutionalization in the Roman imperial milieu. The narrative frames these scholarly positions as the mainstream consensus in contemporary New Testament studies rather than confessional theology. [5]

Production

Reilly developed the project over four years and financed principal costs via a Kickstarter campaign supported by several hundred backers with nearly double its original goal raised. Production credits list Torsten Hoffmann (3DCH Media) and Darren Vukasinovic as producers, Spacecraft Publishing with Chris Twyford and Reilly as executive producers, Marcus Machen as editor, Alexander Dragan as animator, and Jofre Horta Antoniou as composer. [1] [6] Reilly appears on camera as the film's presenter and conducted the interviews with twelve subject-matter specialists. [7]

Participants

The film features interviews with the following scholars and writers, credited in order of appearance on the official site. [1]

NameCredited Affiliation
Geoffrey Dunn Honorary Research Associate, Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures, University of Pretoria
Michael Bird Lecturer in Theology, Ridley College
Mark Goodacre Department of Religious Studies, Duke University
Brent LandauSenior Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Chris ForbesSenior Lecturer, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University
Shushma Malik Lecturer in Classics, University of Roehampton
Amy-Jill Levine University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University
David Runia University of Melbourne and Australian Catholic University
David Fitzgerald Author, Nailed
Richard Carrier Author, On the Historicity of Jesus
Robert M. Price Editor, The Journal of Higher Criticism; host of The Bible Geek
Raphael LatasterLecturer in Religious Studies, University of Sydney

Release

FanForce organized event-cinema screenings in Australia and the United States in March 2020, with broader screening cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] The film premiered for digital viewing on FanForce TV in April 2020, [3] and later became available on Apple TV, which lists a 1h 43min runtime and original audio in Australian English, and on Amazon Prime Video in various regions. [4] Post-pandemic, the film was screened across Australia with sold-out screenings in Sydney, Melbourne, and Bundaberg. [8] In March 2023, the Secular Society of MIT hosted a campus screening with a live Q&A by Reilly via Zoom. [9] [10] [11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About – The Crew & The Scholars". Deep Dive Documentaries. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 Reilly, Cameron (26 February 2020). "Marketing The Messiah Hits Cinemas In March 2020". CameronReilly.com. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Marketing the Messiah – FanForce TV". FanForce TV. 8 April 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Marketing the Messiah". Apple TV. 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  5. ↑ "Synopsis". Deep Dive Documentaries. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  6. ↑ "Our History". 3DCH Media. 15 January 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2025. Two cinema events for Marketing the Messiah and online launch, launched on IMDbTV and various other platforms such as Amazon...
  7. ↑ Reilly, Cameron (15 January 2019). "Principal Photography Completed!". CameronReilly.com. Retrieved 26 September 2025. I shot all of my scenes to camera down in Melbourne... I've done interviews with biblical scholars, ancient historians and academics...
  8. ↑ "Cameron Reilly documentary Marketing the Messiah to screen at the Moncrieff". Cairns Post. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  9. ↑ Reilly, Cameron (16 February 2023). "Marketing The Messiah at MIT". Deep Dive Documentaries. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  10. ↑ "Catalogue – Marketing the Messiah (01:43:15)". FanForce TV. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  11. ↑ "Marketing The Messiah MIT Film Screening". MIT. 17 March 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.