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GOSPEL FILMS LIBRARY is a new free resource from Gospel Films Archive; a growing repository of religious films and film history spanning the past century.
A quick perusal of the website easily shows the care and quality that has been put into this endeavour. It's an important part of film history that has been overlooked for decades.” - - Jon Ted Wynne Actor, Director, Writer, Filmmaker Winnipeg, CanadaMEDFORD, OR, UNITED STATES, December 5, 2024 /EINPresswire / -- Gospel Films Library is a free
online curation of over 350 films that chronicle how Biblical history and Christian ideology were presented to 20th century audiences through the medium of film and television. Many of the films address topics that remain relevant to contemporary audiences.
Some of these rare, neglected films were crafted by talented Hollywood filmmakers expressly for churches, while other films with strong spiritual themes were produced for mainstream television and theatrical audiences. Beginning in the 1950s, several religious episodic series were produced specifically for television. Examples on display in the library are "This is the Life," "Crossroads," and "Christopher Films."
Since movies began, familiar Hollywood faces have helped tell "The Greatest Story Ever Told" on film and on television. Many successful actors, writers, directors, producers, technicians and craftsmen began their careers working on faith-based content. Gospel Films Archive has uncovered many such films featuring popular names from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Television, including James Cagney, DeForest Kelley, James Mason, Bob Hope, Angie Dickinson, Jerry Mathers, Margaret O'Brien, Gale Storm and many more.
There are currently 20 categories on the site including New and Old Testament films, modern era stories, movies, documentaries and biographies, along with special film collections such as Ken Anderson, Omega and Rolf Forsberg films. Three distinguished TV series featured in the library include: "The Life of St. Paul," "The Living Christ" and“The Living Bible” series.
Most religious films produced during the past century were created prior to home video and exist only in 16mm format. Many never successfully made the leap in format from 35mm or 16mm film to VHS or DVD, and many faith-based film studios closed by the end of the 20th century. As the purpose of these films was to be widely shared, most were not copyrighted, and if so, were not renewed.
Thus, when the distribution companies dissolved, these works fell into the public domain or were orphaned. 16mm film prints of titles once part of distributor catalogs ended up dispersed – some into the hands of private collectors. Many fell into neglect with storage conditions unconducive to long-term preservation or public access. Many ended up at estate sales and periodically on eBay.
Once in the care of the Gospel Films Archive staff, the film prints are semi-restored and digitized for wide-spread circulation and preservation in perpetuity. Thus, fulfilling the archive's mission to become the preeminent resource of classic faith-based film and television content from the past century.
Gospel Films Archive began in 2012 as a collaboration between three friends-who also happened to be film preservation professionals; Bob Campbell, Ron Hall, and Derek Meyers. Bob was co-creator/producer of "Matinee at the Bijou" (1980-88) one of PBS's most popular series. Bob's passion today has shifted from collecting secular films to tracking down vintage faith-based films, docs and TV shows. Ron is founder-owner of Festival Films, a 45 year old media company that specializes in providing vintage film and TV shows to TV stations, DVD and on demand streaming platforms. Derek is a TV industry veteran and founder-owner of Myers Memories. He has been collecting 16mm original films for over 30 years and has a knack for ferreting out lost and rare religious content.
Gospel Films Library was inspired by the success and popularity of RedeemTV , a similar FREE streaming service offering over 1500 faith-based titles in various genres of mostly contemporary content or produced during the 21st century. This prompted the Gospel Films Archive team to explore the feasibility of creating our own "sister-site" like RedeemTV only consisting exclusively of film and television content produced during the 20th century.
The Gospel Films Library website has a parallel Roku channel. Both are cost-free, without ads, and with no subscription or registration required. Like RedeemTV, the free GFL website and Roku channel are viewer supported and depend on donor support.
The companies target audience, in addition to anyone interested in New and Old Testament history and related stories, includes academic librarians, colleges and universities with religion, theology, or biblical history departments.
Fans of classic movies and Bible history will find these films especially appealing. The content remains engaging and inspiring, and richly deserves to be rescued, restored and widely reissued.
Bob Campbell
Gospel Films Archive
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Introduction to GOSPEL FILMS LIBRARY (90 sec)
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