Catholic | Filmmaker | Writer Editor & Founder @cathfilmmaker Thinking about cinephilia @voc_cinema 'Vulnerasti cor meum'
Joined August 2021
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Friends, I'm overjoyed to announce the launch of The Catholic Filmmaker (@cathfilmmaker), an online journal dedicated to forming and supporting filmmakers in the Catholic Church.
Read the founding statement and first essay at catholicfilmmaker.org.
Nathan Douglas retweeted
I had a very good time answering these questions about the comic novel from Maya Sinha, a novelist in her own right. We touched upon Cervantes, René Girard, the fall of man, and screwball comedies. Two questions are inspired by @PLeithart's book Deep Comedy. (link in reply)
Kind of thought the most potent element of You Can See Everything is the third act interloper being forced, for a brief moment, to consider the moral responsibilities of dramatic license.
On this feast of St. John Henry Newman, I recommend to all - especially the discouraged - his sermon on Jeremiah. I've found it immensely consoling.
newmanreader.org/works/paroc…
Nathan Douglas retweeted
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.
Nathan Douglas retweeted
John and Christina Mayich have two requests.
First, they want the world to learn more about their son, Matthew.
Second, no matter where you are from or what faith you follow, say a prayer for him
Video: sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/mayic…
Written Story: sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/hes…
YouTube wasn’t the vehicle for Obsession and Backrooms’ success. Ultimately it still comes down to the validation that came from leveling up into professional productions / mentorship and traditional distribution by recognized brands (Focus and A24). It’s also the reason some people are starting to give Pendragon more attention - because it is being distributed more broadly on Amazon Prime, rather than confined to Daily Wire.
Nobody not named Sean Baker or Steven Soderbergh has made an iPhone film worth speaking about as a significant artistic object. That’s because you still need the gamut of tools (lenses, rigs) and skills (blocking, colour correction) to pull out its full potential, like any other camera. At that point, you may as well just invest in a better camera anyway. If the 4k iPhone is a true entry-level game changer, it’s taking an awfully long time to arrive.
It’s also because without name brand validation of the tool - look what so-and-so did with it! - nobody who is truly committed to rising in the industry will care to use it. Again, only two names have really done that: Baker and Soderbergh. Ask yourself: is the IPhone still their go-to camera?
Like iPhone images, AI-generated images offer a staging ground for novices but very little opportunity for advancement or proving one’s mettle (at least for traditional bricks and mortar filmmaking - I think animation is a more complicated question). They are a panacea for the real thing, and anyone who wants the real thing ultimately won’t be satisfied with anything else.
All that said, I agree totally with the OP’s statement that there has never been a better time to make things outside of the usual channels - the means of production are certainly there. The Gordian knot that conservatives cannot solve, though, is that that matters little without the sort of validation that comes from a mainstream distributor, theatrical release, or A-level festival selection - even and especially for conservatives who can function as actual tastemakers. Building something equivalent with that sort of institutional / brand trustworthiness could take at least a generation or more to achieve. To build something like that requires more than a slavish fidelity to Hollywood’s excellence as it once was - it requires an embrace of the whole range of cinema culture, from the avant-garde to the mass-pleasing. And that is a tall order for conservative culture, at least at present.
Another thing I’ll say about this.
People are saying it’s impossible because they don’t have money or distribution channels.
We have YouTube. Two of the biggest films of the year were made by young YouTubers on shoestring budgets. They just started making stuff, didn’t ask anyone’s permission, and proved themselves.
We also have the iPhone that can produce a better picture than something that would’ve cost a million dollars 50 years ago, and editing software unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
We also have AI, and artists need to start embracing it. We’re on the verge of being able to make things in a few weeks that would take 100 Pixar animators a year. See @JoshDaws for an example.
Conditions are tough but not impossible.
It’s never been easier to make things outside the system. Stop waiting for permission and do it.
Excited to have in hand the fruit of @ddavidson329’s labours to bring more of Cahiers’ history to Anglophone readers. Congratulations, David! Can’t wait to dive in.
Nathan Douglas retweeted
It’s when we give up our own ideas of what holiness will look like for us that we’re finally free in God.
Andrew does something remarkable here, nimbly capturing key events, tensions, and dynamics that have characterized 100+ years of Church engagement with cinema. Such work is necessary for the recovery of an authentically Catholic culture of cinema consciousness. Bravo, my friend!
So grateful to have an essay on cinema in the summer issue of @EuroConMag. This essay would not exist without @bazinian_rite and his indispensable editorial aid—forever grateful!
The stunning new chapter of the Has Fallen franchise
Letterboxd Goes Down, Leaving Users Locked Out of Their Accounts variety.com/2026/film/news/l…
This is an excellent conversation. The discussion touching on the implicit challenges of building community/communion among differentiated identities hits way, way closer to home than I’d like to admit.
I love talking to @PageauJonathan. This conversation just dropped on Symbolic World. As you can see below, we covered a lot!
03:19 — The tension between individuality and belonging
04:10 — The lost sheep, the one, and the many
06:30 — Why the modern self has become fragile
08:57 — When celebrating difference turns into isolation
10:50 — Why "selling out" lost its stigma
12:01 — Differentiation, imitation, and false individuality
12:55 — Choosing a vocation beyond market niches
15:18 — The Symbolic World Summit in Oxford
17:31 — How technology reshapes the human person
18:02 — Social media as a source of mimetic desire
20:02 — Why online models become so powerful
20:48 — Distraction and the loss of strong desire
23:09 — Parasocial relationships & vicarious participation
24:42 — Can religious identity become a performance?
25:22 — Thin religion and performative belonging
27:39 — Receiving an identity rather than inventing one
29:22 — Suffering, friction, and the Fall
31:56 — "Faking it until you make it" spiritually
33:38 — False piety and performative religion
34:51 — The danger of the online "Orthobro"
36:16 — The family as a school of communion
38:32 — Differentiating yourself from your family
40:57 — Homogenization vs. communion
41:09 — Teenage rebellion as hostile individuation
42:00 — Rebellion as a substitute rite of passage
43:51 — Why identity must serve something higher
45:43 — The family should not become an isolated unit
47:26 — Does it take a village to raise a child?
48:47 — Political identity built through opposition
49:34 — Internal Family Systems and the divided self
52:23 — How algorithms feed our fragmented parts
53:21 — Monetizing anger online
54:56 — What hope is there for young people?
55:47 — Give young people a name, not a niche
58:05 — Communities we cannot easily abandon
1:00:04 — Choosing what past generations inherited naturally
1:02:25 — Friendship, commitment, and cultural renewal
1:04:03 — Final thoughts on individuation and communion
youtube.com/watch?v=bZfRs9TW…
The normally placid waters of the of the neighbourhood used book store have not escaped the hordes of the Moment We Are In.
Nathan Douglas retweeted
Gratefully back on Criteria to sing, Muse, some first thoughts on THE ODYSSEY with @CatholicPods
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