The teacher Maria Angeles Almacellas, Director of Cinema and Education of CinemaNet in Madrid, will teach the course between December 10 and 12, 2021 “See and grow. Cinema and spirituality” at the Teresiano Sanjuanista International Center (CITeS) in Ávila. The places to participate in the course are still open, and to register it is necessary to complete the following form:
There will be three days of face-to-face training, focused on acquiring keys to capture, understand and interpret the elements of a film that refer to the spiritual dimension of man. Always through concrete examples, it will also seek to relate these elements to the Christian message and respond to the questions or dilemmas raised in the different films.
According to Professor Almacellas, citing the title of her latest book, “good cinema reflects human life as in a mirror and, more or less explicitly, is also open to the transcendent dimension of the human being”. In some films, he points out, the great questions of existence also arise: the rejection or the opening to transcendence; the presence or absence of God; human relations; the value of self-giving out of unconditional love, or the redeeming power of forgiveness. “They almost always let the viewer find the answers,” adds the teacher.
The methodology of the course will be theoretical-practical, and all its concepts will be addressed through various films that will be screened. A support script will also be offered to facilitate search and interpretation keys. “Starting from the reflections that the viewing of these films has provoked in us, the last class will be dedicated to analyzing together the anthropological and spiritual content of each one of them”, the organizers point out.
CONTENTS OF THE COURSE “VIEW AND GROW. CINEMA AND SPIRITUALITY”
The man before the mystery.
The human being is naturally “religious”.
The man needs to be saved.
Wait for the mystery to burst into your life or go out to meet it?
Search for the truth in the darkness.
Can man “prove” God?
What is the faith?
Nostalgia for God and rejection of God.
Man, a finite being, projected to infinity.
Resentment and rejection.
How to kill God.
Why hate God?
Why is religion attacked, especially Christianity?
Why are Christians persecuted?
Silence of God or spiritual deafness?
The drama of the absence of God.
Void of silence versus eloquent silence.
Between faith and magic.
Creator God, but not the immediate cause of what happens.
The art of knowing how to ask with hope.
The art of knowing how to receive with confidence.
The art of knowing how to thank with love.
Mª Ángeles Almacellas will teach a course on Cinema and Spirituality in Ávila