They were in the story.
They just weren't in the sermon.
These films were made to correct that.
I didn't set out to make films.
I set out to tell the truth.
I kept encountering women in Scripture, fully present, deeply human, central to the story, who were being handed to us in a single sentence. A footnote. A warning. A cautionary tale with no complexity allowed.
And I kept sitting with women in spiritual direction who reminded me of them.
Women who had been reduced. Misread. Handed a narrative about themselves that wasn't the whole story — and had been living inside it ever since.
The documentaries I make are my response to both.
Each film centers on one woman — her full story, her full humanity, the complexity the Sunday school version couldn't hold. We bring in voices from theology, psychology, and spiritual leadership. We sit with the text the way it deserves to be sat with. We don't rush to the lesson.
Because the women in these stories weren't here to teach us a lesson.
They were here to live their lives. And their lives have something to say.
She loved a king. She saved a life. She was handed between men like property, used as a political pawn, and then — when she dared to speak — she was silenced and written off as bitter. The church handed us Michal as a warning. This film asks what we missed when we accepted that version without question. Featuring voices from psychology, theology, and spiritual leadership, this documentary reconsiders a familiar biblical story — and invites viewers into a deeper, more reflective faith conversation about who gets to be the villain, and why.
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Voices include: Psychology · Theology · Spiritual leadership
Rizpah lost her sons to political violence. Then she did something the powerful had not anticipated: she stayed. For months, she kept watch over their bodies — exposed on a hill, unburied, dishonored. She would not leave. She would not be silent. She would not let the grief be invisible. 2 Samuel records her vigil in a handful of verses. This film gives it the time it deserves. Sitting with Rizpah's story means sitting with trauma, with grief that demands witness, with the kind of love that looks like madness to people who have never had to fight for the dignity of someone they lost. It also means sitting with the possibility that her refusal to move — her immovable mourning — is what moved a king to finally act. This film offers insight into trauma, healing, reconciliation, and the deep roots of social change. It is for anyone who has ever had to make their grief loud so the world would stop pretending it didn't happen.
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Scripture: 2 Samuel 3:6–11 and 21:1–14
Films in Development
The work continues...
IN PRODUCTION
Hagar
Hagar's story is one of the most layered in all of Scripture — and one of the least preached. She is enslaved, surrogated, and then expelled with her child into the desert when she is no longer useful. And yet she is the first person in the Bible to name God. El Roi. The God who sees me. This documentary explores how messy and complex God's work in history really is — and what it means that God's clearest act of seeing in this story is directed toward a woman the chosen household threw away. For women who have ever felt discarded by the very community that was supposed to protect them — Hagar's story is not a footnote. It is a homecoming.
Rick Landry
IN PRODUCTION
Tamar
"The church has been quiet about what happened to Tamar for a very long time. This film is not."
Tamar's story is one Scripture records with unflinching honesty — and one the church has largely chosen not to preach. A chain of events that leads to a devastating act: the rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon, the silence of her father David, the rage of her brother Absalom that burns but never speaks her name to her directly. She is told to be quiet. She lives in desolation. This film is a tool for exactly the conversation the church has been avoiding. It is designed to be used in communities, churches, and groups who are ready to break the silence that has surrounded sexual violence — and to do so with theological depth, pastoral care, and the kind of honesty that honors survivors rather than institutions. This is not an easy film. It is a necessary one.
How are these films used?
These documentaries were made for more than a single viewing. They are tools — for personal reflection, for community conversation, and for the kind of faith formation that requires honesty about what Scripture actually says and who it actually centers.
Personal Reflection
Watch alone. Sit with what surfaces. These films are designed to slow you down and let the story find you — not the other way around.
Cinema Divina Sessions
Used as the centerpiece of Cinema Divina gatherings — watched together, followed by sacred silence and open conversation. No discussion guide. No script.
Community Groups
Designed for facilitated use in women's groups, small groups, leadership teams, and church communities ready to engage these stories with the depth they deserve.
"These women were not in the margins of Scripture. They were in the margins of our attention. These films exist to change that."
— Dr. Shonda Carter
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More films are coming.
Each new documentary goes deeper. Subscribe to be notified when the next one releases — and to join the community of women who are sitting with these stories together.
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Want to use one of these films in a Cinema Divina session, a church retreat, or a community group? Reach out directly. These films were made to travel — and the conversations they open tend to go places regular programming hasn't been able to reach.