My New Film: Merry Christmas Mr. Reynolds

Over the last month or so my blog postings here have been a little sporadic…and my new book, Son: Understanding what it means to be a Child of God, sits unfinished on my computer 

But there is a very good reason for it though…

…I was making a movie.

During the last 3 years I have had the opportunity to write and direct movies for the high school that I work for.  As my friends and I have gotten better and more experienced I find there are two things I really enjoy:

* telling a story that impacts people in a way that causes them to reflect on God and his love

* working with really fun and creative people

For the last three months I got to do this once again culminating with an all night marathon at my office as we worked to finish the movie before premiering it to 900 staff and students for our term end Christmas assembly this morning.

I won’t lie when I say it feels really good to see people laugh and cry to the story you helped create.  🙂

I also got to work with a great group of young people both in front of the camera as well as behind, who worked hard and sacrificed a lot of weekends to make this film a reality.  A big thank you to all of you!

So here is our movie Merry Christmas Mr. Reynolds.  Inspired by John Hughes’ “The Breakfast Club” the film focuses on the interaction between 5 students and 1 teacher during a Christmas Eve school detention. Issues of prejudice and stereotypes are examined and, in the end, everyone discovers a little more about themselves. New friendships are forged when the students learn “people will often be nice, if we only give them a chance.”

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas Mr Reynolds from CMED on Vimeo.