In the Names of Gods

In 2010, I curated a film series called In the Names of Gods, on the intersections of religion and politics for Columbia University's Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion. Each screening was accompanied by a Q&A session with the filmmakers. The complex topics of the films span the diversity of roles religion has played in the political sphere. These include the story of Vashti McCollum and the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that took religion out of public schools; the presence of U.S. military chaplains in Iraq and Afghanistan; Liberian Christian and Muslim women who helped peacefully dismantle one of the most notoriously violent dictatorships in the world; and homosexuality in the Muslim world. 

List of Films

• Chaplains Under Fire (2010) Q&A with dirs. Terry Nickelson & Lee Lawrence
• The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today (2011) Q&A with dir. Jay Rosenstein 
• Hiding and Seeking (2004) Q&A with dir. Oren Rudavsky 
• Constantine’s Sword (2007) + 
  Sister Rose’s Passion (2004) Q&A with dir. Oren Jacoby
• A Jihad for Love (2007) Q&A with dir. Parvez Sharma
• Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008) Q&A with producer Abigail Disney 

Press

• Joseph Pomp for Columbia Spectator
• Frank Pasquine for NYFA Blog