South of the Clouds | |
---|---|
Directed by | William James |
Written by | Charles Schwepp (scenario) Alan Shilin (narration) |
Produced by | Paul F. Heard |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | William James |
Distributed by | Religious Film Association |
Release date |
|
Running time | 30 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
South of the Clouds is a 1950 black and white short documentary film produced by the Protestant Film Commission. Filmed on the campus of the Beirut College for Women, it depicts the progress made by Christian missionary education in the Near East. [1] The story focuses on a Muslim young woman from an aristocratic family who rooms with an orphan Lebanese Christian girl at the college and broadens her personal outlook through education, Christian fellowship, and community service. The film was developed in response to a request by Protestant mission boards functioning under the Missionary Education Movement to assist in their promotion of overseas missionary education. It was distributed through the Religious Film Association for rental to denominational churches throughout the United States.
Through voice-over narration, Najla, a sheltered girl from an aristocratic Muslim family in Damascus, retells her desire to go to college and her traditional family's grudging acquiescence. Najla immediately feels out of place when she arrives at the Beirut College for Women and witnesses the lack of formality, the democratic milieu of a student body composed of girls from all religions and nationalities, the easy camaraderie between girls and boys, and the outgoing personality of her roommate, a Lebanese Christian orphan named Suad who has been raised by her grandmother. Najla immerses herself in her studies and slowly gets used to fellowship activities with the other students.
Najla is again perturbed when the girls travel to a village to help doctors attend to the sick and needy. Najla feels she is unable to relate to others' suffering because of her privileged family background, but Suad encourages her that God wants her to help others. Najla's feelings begin to change when she interacts with underprivileged yet happy children in a neighborhood program. She decides to join Suad as a volunteer in the village during the summer and, while Suad teaches young children, Najla discovers her talents as a nurse. She prays with the rest of the volunteers under the guidance of the pastor and feels a commonality with them. She muses that while she used to live "in the clouds", enjoying a life of privilege, she has discovered life "south of the clouds", interacting with other people and trying to meet their needs. On graduation day, when Najla's and Suad's families come to see them receive their diplomas, Suad receives word that she has won a scholarship to study in the United States. The headman of the village reminds Suad of her promise to teach in the village after graduation, and Najla decides to take Suad's place.
South of the Clouds was developed in response to a request by Protestant mission boards functioning under the Missionary Education Movement to assist in its promotion of overseas missionary education. [2] The Division of Audio Visual Education of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America assisted in the production. [3]
The script focuses on the activities of a Christian college in the Near East—the Beirut College for Women—and its introduction of "modern democratic ways of thinking and living" to a student body composed of girls from all religions, nationalities, and economic circumstances, including Christians, Jews, and Muslims. [1] [4] [5] The main character is a Muslim girl for whom the democratic milieu of the college is a stark departure from her own upbringing, though over time she learns to embrace it. [6]
The production employed native actors and actresses. [5] Upon the showing of the film at the Second Presbyterian Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, church members spotted one of their own who was working at the Beirut College for Women in one of the scenes. [7]
Filming took place on location in Beirut, Lebanon. [3] Scenes filmed on the campus of the Beirut College for Women were done under the supervision of W. A. Stoltzfus, president of the college. [3] The documentary takes up one film reel and is 30 minutes in length. [8] It was produced in a 16 mm format. [8]
The film was released in 1950. [3] [8] It was not released commercially, but was available for rental to Protestant denominational churches in the United States. The release coincided with the church's 1950–1951 foreign mission study which stressed the Near East region. [6] According to Lindvall and Quicke, the film was promoted by the Christian Film Service as part of a Southern Baptist effort to familiarize their denominations with missionary education efforts underway in foreign countries. [9]
South of the Clouds was named best in its class at the 1950 Cleveland Film Festival. [10]
The Presbyterian Church of the United States of America reported that South of the Clouds was the most popular film among church rentals in 1951, with 462 rentals recorded. [11]
Butrus al-Bustani was a writer and scholar from present day Lebanon. He was a major figure in the Nahda, which began in Egypt in the late 19th century and spread to the Middle East.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations and consisted of participants from Protestant Reformed traditions such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and German Reformed churches.
The Near East School of Theology (NEST), located in Beirut, Lebanon, is an interdenominational Reformed Protestant theological seminary serving Christian churches of the Middle East and North Africa, and also educates international students who have a special interest in Biblical and Islamic studies in a Middle Eastern context or those especially interested in the Ancient churches.
The Evangelical Church of Egypt (Synod of the Nile) (also called the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Egypt, Egyptian: الكنيسة الإنجيلية المشيخية El-Kenisa El-Engileyya El-Mashyykhia) is a Protestant church that started as a mission of the United Presbyterian Church of North America among Coptic Egyptians in the late nineteenth century. The Evangelical Church of Egypt became autonomous in 1957 and officially independent in 1958. It has eight presbyteries, 314 congregations, and about 250,000 members.
In the early 19th century, Western colonial expansion occurred at the same time as an evangelical revival – the Second Great Awakening – throughout the English-speaking world, leading to more overseas missionary activity. The nineteenth century became known as the Great Century of modern religious missions.
The Irish Presbyterian Mission was an Irish Presbyterian missionary society.
The Presbyterian Church of Pakistan is the second largest Protestants denomination in Pakistan. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of United Presbyterian Church of Pakistan (1855–1993) and Council of Churches of Lahore.
Dr. J Dudley Woodberry is dean emeritus and senior professor of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary School of Intercultural Studies, specializing in Islamic Studies. While most of Woodberry's time has been spent teaching and writing for scholarly publications, he has also served for many years in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. Woodberry has acted as editor for : Paradigm Shifts in Christian Witness: Insights from Anthropology, Communication, and Spiritual Power (2008); Resources for Peacemaking in Muslim-Christian Relations: Contributions from the Conflict Transformation Project (2006); Muslim and Christian Reflections On Peace: Divine and Human Dimensions (2005); Reaching the Resistant: Barriers and Bridges for Mission (1998); Missiological Education for the Twenty-First Century: The Book, the Circle, and the Sandals (1996); and Muslims and Christians on the Emmaus Road: Crucial Issues in Witness Among Muslims (1991)
Suad Joseph received her doctorate in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1975. Dr. Joseph is Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis and in 2009 was President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her research addresses issues of gender; families, children, and youth; sociology of the family; and selfhood, citizenship, and the state in the Middle East, with a focus on her native Lebanon. Her earlier work focused on the politicization of religion in Lebanon. Joseph is the founder of the Middle East Research Group in Anthropology, the founder and coordinator of the Arab Families Working Group, the founder of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, and the founding director of the Middle East/South Asian Studies Program at the University of California at Davis. She is also the founder and facilitator of a six-university consortium of the American University of Beirut, American University in Cairo, Lebanese American University, University of California at Davis, and Birzeit University Consortium.
Lebanese Protestant Christians refers to Lebanese people who are adherents of Protestantism in Lebanon.
Second Chance is a 1950 American black-and-white drama film directed by William Beaudine and produced by Paul F. Heard for the Protestant Film Commission. It stars Ruth Warrick, John Hubbard, and Hugh Beaumont. The story centers on a middle-aged woman who has received a dire health prognosis from her doctor and proceeds to look back on her life in flashback, seeing herself change from a sweet and idealistic young bride into a brittle and disillusioned older woman. In the end, the wake-up call is really a dream, but the woman realizes that only by reconnecting with her Christian faith and with God will she manage to improve her life and relationships. The film was not released commercially, but was widely distributed to Protestant denominational churches in the United States and Canada.
Dr. Mary Pierson Eddy (1864-1923) was a religious and medical missionary. She was born in Syria to American missionary parents. Dr. Eddy followed in her parents' footsteps to become a medical missionary in the Middle East. She was the first woman to obtain a license to practice medicine in the Ottoman Empire. Dr. Eddy spent most of her missionary career traveling among remote villages of Syria until her death at age 59.
Layyah Faris Anton Alkazin Barakat was a Lebanese-born Christian missionary, writer, temperance activist, and prison reformer, based after 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the first Lebanese American woman to write and publish her autobiography, when A Message from Mount Lebanon was published in 1912.
Andrew P. Happer (1818–1894) was a nineteenth-century American Presbyterian missionary who is known for his educational, medical, and religious endeavours in South China. Happer's missionary service lasted from 1844 to 1891, and during this time he worked in the suburbs and city of Canton. In the field of medicine, Happer created two dispensaries, the first was established in 1847 and the second in 1854. He also introduced higher Christian education to the Chinese youth of Canton through opening boarding and day schools, a training school, and eventually the Canton Christian College in the year 1888. Carrying out his duty as a Presbyterian missionary, Happer found the First Presbyterian Church where he was a pastor and converted many Cantonese people to Christianity, published books and other works focusing on Presbyterian faith, translated multiple religious works, and held editor positions for Presbyterian periodicals. After making his impact on the Cantonese people and laying down the foundation for future Presbyterian missions in South China, Happer left China for the last time in 1894.
A Wonderful Life is a 1951 black-and-white short drama film produced by the National Council of Churches of Christ and distributed by the Protestant Film Commission. It is an adaptation of Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life for the Christian film industry. Directed by William Beaudine, it stars James Dunn, Allene Roberts, and Arthur Shields. The film retells the life of an ordinary Christian family man in flashback as his family and friends remember all the good he did through his devotion to church and community. The film emphasizes the power of faith, love, and community service for living a meaningful life, together with the message that people do not realize the true worth of others until after they have died. The film was not released commercially, but was distributed to some 30,000 churches throughout the United States and Canada.
The Protestant Film Commission, also known as the Protestant Film Office, was an American film agency which promoted Protestant religious and moral values in Hollywood cinema. Representing 200,000 American Protestant churches with approximately 34 million members, the Commission was founded in 1945 as a consulting agency for Hollywood film scripts and also provided reviews and ratings for general-market Hollywood films.
My Name Is Han is a 1948 black-and-white short docudrama produced by the International Film Foundation for the Protestant Film Commission. Shot on location in China and using only native Chinese non-professional actors, the film focuses on the work of Christian missionaries in China through the depiction of a minister, a doctor, a teacher, and an agricultural specialist. The plot centers around Han, a farmer who is battered by war, destruction, poverty, and hardship, yet refuses to accept the healing power of faith. But as he sees the effect of church teachings on his wife, his children, and his neighbors, and even benefits personally from Christian doctrine, he begins to accept Christ into his life. The film was the second in a series of short films developed under the auspices of the Protestant Film Commission for noncommercial release to denominational churches across the United States and Canada.
Again Pioneers is a 1950 American black-and-white short drama film produced by Paul F. Heard for the Protestant Film Commission. Directed by William Beaudine, it stars Colleen Townsend, Tom Powers, Sarah Padden, and Regis Toomey. The story is set in the fictional town of Fairview and depicts the friction between the middle-class residents and the impoverished migrants who live on the outskirts in a shantytown called "The Patch". The film explores the meaning of the American Dream for both types of residents, and the responsibility of the church to reinstill Christian values of human dignity and freedom into American life. The film was produced at the request of the Home Missions Council of North America. It was not released commercially, but was distributed to 30,000 Protestant denominational churches in the United States.