Rare biblical film posters exhibit comes to Brandstater Gallery

Titled “Sacred Cinematic Spectacles,” the show features lithographic posters in different languages exploring the spiritual power of material culture. An opening reception will be held Sunday, Feb. 23, 6 - 8 p.m., with a panel discussion at 6:45 p.m. featuring Catholic, Mainline Protestant, and Adventist scholars delving into the connection between film and faith. 

The rare body of work is owned by the Blackfriars Gallery and was collected by the late Fr. Michael Morris who was a professor of art and religion at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The show is curated by Alexander Carpenter, editor of Spectrum magazine, a publication of the Adventist Forum. Morris served as Carpenter’s advisor during Carpenter’s graduate studies at the union.

Reception panelists will include Carpenter; Fr. Christopher Renz from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley who worked with Morris; Dr. Ryan Parker of the Pacific Union College film department; Erik Harty, adjunct professor in La Sierra’s Film and Television Production department; Dr. Ronald Osborn with La Sierra’s H.M.S. Richards Divinity School; and Tim Musso, art professor and Brandstater Gallery director who will speak about the technical art specifications of the poster printing.

The posters, in period font and colorful stone lithograph drawings, depict such iconic movie classics as the 1959 epic “Ben-Hur” starring Charlton Heston, 1949’s “Samson and Delilah” directed by the renowned Cecile B. DeMille, the Heston 1956 classic, “The Ten Commandments,” and 1960’s “David and Goliath” starring Orson Welles.

“As the gallery director, I am excited to host this incredible collection of film posters,” Musso said. “This collection provides a timeline in the evolution of illustration, typography, photography, and printing technology spanning over 100 years. Because each poster tells a complex story in just one image, it is a perfect collection for students and visitors alike to study the principles and elements of design and visual storytelling.”

Notes Carpenter in a curator’s statement, “Film, like faith, ‘gives substance to our hopes and convinces us of realities we do not see.’ (Heb. 11:1 REV). 

“This exhibition of first-edition, rare, vintage, lobby, and kiosk lithograph posters, along with ephemera from movies related to biblical themes reveals that the material and the profane should not be automatically dismissed as the enemy of faith and the good,” he writes. “They all share a deeply sacred human light. Beyond their surface separation, perhaps cinema and the church illuminate a profound and spectacular ultimate reality: transcendence.” 

The exhibit “Sacred Cinematic Spectacles” is the second show Carpenter has curated for Brandstater Gallery. “When I reached out to La Sierra University, I found administration and faculty very welcoming to the intellectual and spiritual experience that this show offers the viewer,” he said. “I love the experience of working with Tim Musso, its [gallery] director, as well as the thoughtful students who help with the installation.”