So it’s been a while since I have posted on the blog but hey I have been busy. How busy you ask? Well Lets see… Finished collage WOOHOO!!! Put on a film Festival, and most importantly been making movies. I have spent the last few weeks filming a group of ex-gang members in Oxnard that are putting on a play about the gangster life and healing powers of Jesus Christ. The whole experience of filming these pious players of the stage has taken root in my heart and is opening my eyes to the power of religion. Not to long ago I watched Ingmar Bergman “The 7th Seal” a great euro-classic about a knight returning home from the crusades that is searching for the meaning of life as he plays chess with Death himself. There is a part were the knight is confessing in a small church in a plague ridden town and says “We carve an idol out of fear, and call it god.”
WOW Deep! The film just said what I have thought of but been unable to put into words all my life!
Keeping this quote in my mind I went to the Victory Outreach Church in Oxnard to document the play for the first time and WHAMMM!!!! Everything changes!! At the church I saw a miracle, ex-gang bangers praying for Jesus and worshipping the lord. Here I was surrounded by a group of people that at one point in their lives would have robbed me and stolen everything I have if the opportunity had arisen. Yet now they were coming to me with open arms wanting me to hear their story of how they turned their life around with the help of Jesus. I heard all the horrors these people went through.
“My little brother was shot and died in my arms.”
“I was addicted to heroin and had sores all of my body”
“I sold Meth to my dad.”
I also heard the turning point,
“I found God.”
“Jesus saved me.”
“I was saved by my Homie on the streets.”
Everyone had a different story of hatred and vice that only led down one road, yet there was a fork in the road that they all took and were now on a path to prosperity.
Now on a mission from god they are telling the story of the gangster lifestyle and party scene and the path it leads to through the medium of drama in “So you Wanna be a Gangster” The cast of the play feels right at home playing the part since they draw from past experiences when they are on stage.
The whole experience has changed me. I am a person of fact, with that said I don’t believe in god, but I now believe in the healing powers of religion, and the members of the Victory outreach church in Oxnard is my case study.
Photo: One of the actors’ poses for a portrait outside the Isabel Junior High School in Santa Paula Ca. before going on stage. © Michael Thanhouser 2010
