Title: ChristCore
Year: 2012
Director: Justin Ludwig
Country: Canada
Language: English
Throughout history, Christianity and music have been at
great odds, often bitter enemies. According to legend the great blues musician
Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for talent, wealth and
fame. At the height of Elvis Presley's popularity in the 50's religious
conservatives claimed that rock and roll was "the devil's music". During
a press conference in 1966 John Lennon claimed that The Beatles were more
popular than Jesus, which caused a major backlash and resulted in public
burnings of their records.
Atheist Canadian Director Justin Ludwig has created a
documentary called Christcore. It is
about a group of musicians who dare to combine Christianity and rock music. The
film starts with Ludwig's own doubt regarding this relatively new phenomena, citing his own views, but then slowly
submerges us into this strange new world.
To me, the combination of punk and Christianity seems to be
the worst of both worlds. Anybody who
grew up listening to the Sex Pistols or the hymns of a good church choir would
agree with me. However the point of
Christian Hardcore is that it doesn't seem to fit, it's the music taste a culture of religious outcasts. Ludwig shows this
rather well, as we are immersed in the lives
of people with nothing to live for except God and music. They are
fascinating and yet incredibly strange.
Though Ludwig has a distaste for Christianity, he doesn't let
his subjective opinion to affect what we
see on screen. He allows each subject to speak their mind and he gives them
plenty of space to be themselves without
judgement. This is refreshing, especially since most documentary directors
nowadays make their own personal beliefs to dominate the picture. Unfortunately
the film doesn't dive too deep into Christian philosophy, but despite this, the
director is incredibly effective in making Christian Hardcore appealing.
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