{"id":40022,"date":"2016-02-14T16:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T00:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=40022"},"modified":"2016-02-26T08:44:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T16:44:29","slug":"risen-the-rich-peluso-interview-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/02\/risen-the-rich-peluso-interview-round-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Risen<\/i>: the Rich Peluso interview round-up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"risen-peluso\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One person who has been very active in promoting Risen<\/a><\/i> \u2014 which opens this Friday \u2014 is Rich Peluso, the senior vice president of Affirm Films, the \u201cfaith-based\u201d branch of Sony Pictures. Since I devoted entire interview round-ups to the film\u2019s co-stars Joseph Fiennes<\/a> and Tom Felton<\/a>, I figured I should devote a post to Peluso, too.<\/p>\n

In the past, I have linked to a podcast interview<\/a> that Peluso did with The Church Boys, as well as a couple of print interviews<\/a> (or whatever the online equivalent of \u201cprint\u201d is these days) that he did with LifeSiteNews and The Catholic World Report<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Here are the other interviews Peluso has done that I have come across since then:<\/p>\n

Peluso talked to The Gospel Herald<\/a><\/i> about balancing the familiarity of the Easter story with the different perspective that this particular film approaches it from:<\/p>\n

GH: Why is this story still so important today?<\/i><\/p>\n

RP: The same reason that we continue to read Scripture each day. Encountering the stories of when God intersects with humankind holds endless blessings and encouragement. We\u2019re to remember this and experience it afresh. That\u2019s one thing we\u2019re hearing from Christians that encounter this story; it feels very fresh and new to them, and they\u2019re picking up insights and experiences they\u2019d not had before in engaging the story. Like other great lessons and stories and our culture and our faith, it\u2019s important to relive the lessons who grew up with, because they continue to hold things for us in our life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometime last summer (before the release of War Room<\/a><\/i> last August), Peluso told CBN<\/a> that the film had already tested well with non-Christian audiences:<\/p>\n

Having tested the film four times, thus far, in front of large audiences, Peluso has gotten the rave reviews he wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing from non-Christians and those who do not regularly attend church is that they do not feel preached to. They don\u2019t feel kind of hit over the head with Jesus or the Bible. But, they are intrigued by this man and His followers. They are intrigued by the story of what happened, the birth of Christianity and the fact that the infrastructure of Judea, both the Sanhedrin and the Jewish leadership and the Roman leadership were all about crushing this man and crushing His followers. So that automatically lends them credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus is not talking at them heavily through this movie. It\u2019s through Clavius\u2019 interactions with Jesus and Clavius\u2019 interactions with the disciples that we learn of Jesus\u2019 teachings and we learn who He is as the Son of God. And again, it all feels just so easy to try on for the unchurched.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And finally (for now), a couple of longer half-hour video interviews.<\/p>\n

Peluso spoke to Matt Crouch (producer of The Omega Code<\/a><\/i> and One Night with the King<\/a><\/i>) and his wife Laurie at the Trinity Broadcasting Network:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=v4ES5nljSGs<\/p>\n

And he spoke to Gordon James Klingenschmitt of Pray in Jesus Name News:<\/p>\n