News: Rik Swartzwelder Visits Calvin

Filmmaker Rik Swartzwelder, whose short film The Least of These is playing at festivals around the country, made a brief stop at Calvin College in October to show his films and discuss filmmaking with students and faculty. Swartzwelder, who wrote, produced, and directed the film, will also be teaching an interim course on film making this January.

Having won twenty-six awards at numerous film festivals, both secular and Christian, The Least of These is a piece that speaks on a spiritual level that people of all faiths can identify with. The story takes place in an all-night diner, where the regulars comfortably sit in emotional isolation. Clearly there is something lacking in each of their lives – from Jim the diner owner to the quiet girl alone in the corner – but their little world is disrupted one night when a stranger sits at the counter and dares to do something radical: throw a birthday party for Sharon, a tough hooker with a harsh past. Swartzwelder attributes the success of his film to the story. “The power of film is the power of the story. It inspires you in the same moment it wounds you.”

Despite the obvious use of spiritual themes, Swartzwelder doesn't label his film as religious. “I want to have it reach a universal audience,” he says. “I want it to entertain, but also make people think.” And his film has done just that. The film has had mixed responses, but overall it has been well received. Trouble from Christian audiences includes the minority extremes – from Christian intellectuals who believe Christianity and film cannot mix, to those who worry that film is closely related to the devil – but its great success in festivals is a testament to the significance of his film.

One of the greatest rewards for Swartzwelder has been the opportunity to discuss his film with diverse audiences and artists at the many festivals he’s attended. Having a group of Jewish elderly women come to him with tears in their eyes one day, and another day talking about God at non-religious film festivals with other filmmakers (he points out that they initiate these spiritual discussions)have been just a few of the blessing God has shown him through The Least of These. Being able to talk about the biblical parable of the lost sheep in auditoriums packed with secular audiences has been thrilling, but he claims that those experiences have “completely changed [his] life and perception of Christianity and artistry.”

Although Swartzwelder does not want to use his film as a religious platform, he hopes the story will provoke people to challenge their conceptions of religion. He says the film “shows you what the church is not, but what it can be. People recognize the characters in the movie, and the success of the film is God doing something extraordinary with something ordinary.” He hopes that people will acknowledge the relevance of spirituality. “We take Christianity so for granted in our own lives that we want to discount anything that gives credit to the Spirit.” In The Least of These, Jesus isn’t mentioned, nor is God, yet the audience can identify with the need for good community, and the love expressed in the story is “so powerful, that regardless of anything else, there’s truth in there,” Swartzwelder says.

Being a Christian who is a filmmaker challenges Swartzwelder, but he is passionate about his work. When asked if he has any advice for the students at Calvin interested in filmmaking as a career, he says, “If you can do anything else with your life, do it. But if the compulsion to tell stories is in you, if God has wired you to be a visual artist, you dare not do anything else or settle for a compatible life or an illusion.”

For more information on The Least of These and other projects by Rik Swartzwelder, visit Old Fashioned Pictures.

—Kaitlyn Bohlin