Your Kingdom Come chosen as “official selection” in international film festival
A documentary created by Trevecca students will be a featured film at the International Christian Film and Music Festival, which kicked off earlier this week in Orlando, Fla.
Your Kingdom Come, a documentary about the life of Christ and filmed in Israel, will be screened at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, May 5. The documentary has also been nominated for Best Documentary and Best Director.
Other documentary selections to the festival include Tortured for Christ, a cinematic retelling of Voice of the Martyrs founder Richard Wurmbrand’s imprisonment and torture for his faith and Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World, a documentary about Our Little Roses, the only girls’ orphanage in Honduras.
For Professor Seth Conley, associate professor of communication studies, the documentary’s selection to the festival and the nominations are both testaments to the quality of the students’ work.
“Our students, who created this project, are in the same film festival as films produced by Christian producers,” Conley said. “Some notable ones would be the Voice of the Martyrs’ Tortured for Christ and God’s Not Dead 2.
Filmed in Israel during spring 2017, Your Kingdom Come is focused on the life of Christ and delves into the concept and meaning of the kingdom of God. More than 20 students participated in the project, which included writing and producing the documentary. Conley led the trip, along with Dr. Tim Gaines, assistant professor of religion, and Shawna Songer Gaines, University chaplain.
Recently, The Foundry Publishing released a Bible study curriculum—also written by Trevecca students—based on the documentary. Read more.
The documentary film was chosen as an official selection of the film festival, which touts itself as the largest Christian film festival and the only one with a screening during the Cannes Film Festival. Conley also received a nomination for his work as the documentary’s director, an accolade he credits entirely to his students.
“It really is a reflection of the students’ work,” he said. “The director relies on the people around him or her. The crew of Trevecca students were so amazing that they made the project a strong piece of digital storytelling. To me, a nomination for best director reflects the team around the director, not the director himself.”
The International Christian Film and Music Festival runs from May 1-5 at the Wyndham Resort in Orlando. The award ceremony is scheduled for Saturday evening.
Speakers include David A. R. White, cofounder of Pure Flix; T.C. Stallings, actor and author as well as award-winning filmmaker Joth Riggs who has worked on God’s Not Dead 2 and other notable Christian films.
Regardless of the results, Conley is proud of the students’ work and excited for the documentary to read a wider audience. All of this points to the quality of the documentary and the strength of the program, he says.
“It speaks well to the quality and standards that we’re holding our students to,” he said. “They will be competitive in the professional world because of the experience that they’ve had and the high standards that we’re holding them to.”
Media contact: Mandy Crow, mmcrow@trevecca.edu, 615-248-1695