Article published November 07, 2009
Hillsong United turns lens on world's neediest
Christian band's movie is a call to action
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Imagine finding yourself in the center of an African clinic one day, a Malaysian orphanage a day later, a Brazilian slum the next, and a Los Angeles soup kitchen the following day.
These drop-in visits continue, day after day, for three years in a row as you circle the globe, coming face to face with the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the orphaned, the abandoned in 93 cities on six continents.
In between the heartwrenching scenarios, you and your buddies go on stage and lead thousands of Christians in a few hours of praise and worship music.
Then it's on to the next location.
That's the sort of daily schedule the members of Australian band Hillsong United experienced over the last few years and which they have documented in the new movie The I Heart Revolution: We're All in this Together.
The two-hour documentary premiered in the United States and Canada Wednesday for a one-night-only showing, including the Cinema De Lux theaters in Maumee.Preceding the movie debut, band members discussed the project and played a few songs in a live video sent by satellite from their home turf in Sydney, Australia. The program, which was not advertised much in the Toledo area, drew about 50 people locally.
Joel Houston, one of the founders of Hillsong United and son of Hillsong Church's pastor Brian Houston, said the initial idea for the movie was to tell the stories of people they encountered in their travels.
But like many creative projects, the concept shifted and evolved as the filming progressed.
It became something more. Much more.
We're All in this Together is not just a bunch of individual stories strung together, it's a call to action.
Filmed in a fast-changing, often frenetic pace of scenes and viewpoints that are hallmarks of buster-generation filmography, the movie will push American audiences way out of their comfort zones.
Early on, we see grainy images of Hillsong United musicians and crew hauling luggage, waiting in lines, staring wearily at airline arrival and departure screens, wondering even where they are.
A blur of city signs whips across the screen: Sao Paolo, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Rio, Phoenix, Paris, Quezon City. …
Disjointed at first and occasionally rambling, the film's big-hearted message starts coming to life with Robert F. Kennedy's eloquent and visionary speech - given at Cape Town University in 1966 - cutting through the chaos.
"Everywhere new technology and communications [bring] men and nations closer together, the concerns of one inevitably [become] the concerns of all. And our new closeness is stripping away the false masks, the illusion of differences which is the root of injustice and of hate and of war. Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ends at river shore, his common humanity is enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town or his views and the color of his skin.
"It is - It is your job, the task of young people in this world, to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilization of man," Kennedy says in his famously nasal Bostonian voice.
Condensed history lessons, presented with flashy graphics and voice-overs, pop up throughout the film, explaining such landmark events as the British abolition movement, the Little Rock 9, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The most compelling scenes, by far, are when the camera zeroes in on the forlorn faces and ragged clothes of children living on the streets, apparently in every major city and nation the band visits.
The contrasts are striking. One moment Hillsong United is at a press conference being treated like rock stars, or performing concerts before tens of thousands of fans. Then we see them walking along dirt paths holding hands with emaciated orphans, or playing soccer with street kids.
Martin Smith of the British band Delirious?, who is interviewed several times in the film, said it "messes with your head" to be feeding the poor and destitute during the day and then jetting off to spend the night in a luxury hotel.
Hillsong United's band members, wearing their fashionable skinny jeans, T shirts, and hoodies, express the questions and feelings that will be weighing on the minds of everyone watching.
What can one person do? The needs are overwhelming. I feel so inept.
The only antidote they can think of is love.
"From the beggar to the king, from the famous to the faceless, everybody needs love," one voice-over states.
That leads into some Bible verses and "the one story," as Joel Houston says of Jesus' death on the cross.
"To be honest, I feel I don't know anything except the one thing - God is love," he says.
Another voice offers this compelling insight: "Jesus didn't die to give us religion. He died to show us love."
The Christian message of the movie is clear and fitting for a documentary about a globe-trotting Christian rock band. But the goal of the filmmakers has no religious or social boundaries or limits: Get off the couch, get out of the house, get involved.
More information on The I Heart Revolution: We're All in this Together is available online at i-heart.org.
- David Yonke
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