Nativity creativity

A few videos from around the web which I’ve tripped over, and which could be useful to some over the next few weeks. Most have appeared on my FB feed before now, but gathering them in one more permanent place, with details of where to get them from, seemed worthwhile.

First, two films from Youth for Christ, which are available to download for free from iTunes (this link should open iTunes to the podcast page if you have it). The first is called ‘Disengaged’, an award-winning one-header of Mary’s experience of the build up to the nativity. The production values and acting are alike excellent, the script good, the setting modern, the tone gritty – not many laughs here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4S5nJCiig]

 

Also from YfC – iTunes link again – ‘Father’s Day’: Joseph, monologue-ing outside as the birth takes place. For my taste, not as powerful as the previous one: well-produced; not quite so well-acted; again, a modern setting; again, fairly gritty. I can’t find it on YouTube, but you can see it on YfC’s own preview site here. The two would work well together if you wanted them to.

 

The nativity on Facebook. A film by Igniter media, available for download (for USD12) here. The whole story, told via FB updates. The pictures are all a bit Gustave Doré, which is slightly incongruous set against FB, but the conceit is probably clever enough to carry it. The ‘script’ is sometimes powerful, more often a bit safe:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghwe4TYY18]

 

The next few are on YouTube. As such, you can show them from the web; there are programs and websites that will download them for you, but this is a breach of copyright law.

‘If Jesus were born in times of Google…’ is an advert for some company, which, similarly to the last one, re-imagines the nativity story in a digital age. Less reverent, unquestionably, but more inventive:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gFYzErcweg]

 

‘Nativity 2.0’ was produced by a missionary couple in Tahiti, using actors from their local context. It again imagines the story using digital tools. Gabriel sends Mary a text ‘U R highly favored,’ and the story is played for laughs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbXy0MhHVLA]

 

‘Bethelehemian Rhapsody’ was a puppet show done by a youthgroup at a local church, I believe. Truly magnificent…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW1pbuyGlQ0]

 

(The audio can be purchased for USD5 from the composer of the parody here.)

It is too early to say ‘Happy Christmas’, of course – or even ‘have an austere and focused advent’; a blessed celebration of the feast of St Catherine of Alexandria to you all, however. Or indeed the solemnity of St Colman of Cloyne, if he is more to your taste.