presents
In this 20-minute film, directed and produced by Jeanine Isabel Butler and Catherine Lynn Butler, viewers are taken on an eye-opening journey through decades of religious polarization, political propaganda, corporate deal-making, and environmental injustice based on systemic racism. It’s a story often told in light of social and cultural issues. It’s told less so in relation to the biggest crisis facing us today—climate change.
Tickets to the virtual premiere and post-screening panel with guests Anthea Butler, Darren Dochuk, and director Jeanine Butler, are available on the Virginia Film Festival website beginning at 10 am on October 21.
The Cast
Featuring scholars, journalists, activists, religious, and political leaders, as pictured above from left–right:
- Richard Cizik, President, New Evangelical Partnership
- Anthea Butler, Associate Professor, Religious Studies and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- Kyle Schaap, National Organizer, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA)
- Darren Dochuk, Professor of History, University of Notre Dame and Author, Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern Oil
- Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Pastor and Founder, New Roots A.M.E. Church, Farmer
- Katherine Stewart, Journalist and Author, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of the Religious Right
- Bob Inglis, Former U.S. Representative, R-South Carolina, 4th Congressional District
- Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm
Background
The Lab first met sisters Jeanine and Catherine Butler, co-founders of Butlerfilms, when their award-winning documentary American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel screened at the 2019 Virginia Film Festival. After seeing their “eye-opening” (Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times) depiction of evangelical politics and social life in Oklahoma, Lab co-directors Martien Halvorson-Taylor and Kurtis Schaeffer recognized the possibility of realizing a dream project—a film about religion, politics, race, and climate change. Following a 6-month collaboration amidst a pandemic, Butlerfilms and the Religion, Race & Democracy Lab have produced a compelling short exploring how potent forces came together to mount an army of climate change skeptics in the name of God, country and capitalism.
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