Casting out demons is a practice that seems more at home in the middle ages rather than the 21st century, however it still goes on today. The Church of England has a resource for it within most regions. The ministers involved talk about their experiences with the supernatural and how they became convinced of the existence of demons before becoming involved in the specific ministry.
For the Screen West Midlands funding stream "First Cut", 2004 was the year of the documentary and, yet again I held some vague aspiration to actually put my money where my mouth was and take part, however I never managed to get around to it! Seeing the end products, I'm not sure I would have had anything to really make a film about because the films are mostly pretty personal pieces. This film is one of the better films from the load because it works very well as a documentary on a wide subject. The talking heads all relate different experiences of demons and the supernatural and they all do a good job at coming across as normal, perfectly reasonable people.
The film seems unsure of the truth and it does a very good job of being balanced. The believers are given room to make a case and provide convincing experiences to back it up, while at the same time it is all gently poo-pooed by a minister who found that "ghostly footsteps" were really just a wooden floor suffering the effects of leaking pipework! The only woman who didn't win me over was the one who said she had experienced a demon and that she had started to feel the air was polluted and that people were against her hum, wasn't she right though? The film concludes well, with the message still mixed and it does what a documentary should do asks questions rather than ranting one opinion (yes Michael Moore, I'm still talking about you).
Overall this is an interesting little film and one of the best of the documentaries funded via First Cut this year. Worth seeing if you have an interest in this aspect of life and live in the midlands, but still worth seeing even if you don't.
For the Screen West Midlands funding stream "First Cut", 2004 was the year of the documentary and, yet again I held some vague aspiration to actually put my money where my mouth was and take part, however I never managed to get around to it! Seeing the end products, I'm not sure I would have had anything to really make a film about because the films are mostly pretty personal pieces. This film is one of the better films from the load because it works very well as a documentary on a wide subject. The talking heads all relate different experiences of demons and the supernatural and they all do a good job at coming across as normal, perfectly reasonable people.
The film seems unsure of the truth and it does a very good job of being balanced. The believers are given room to make a case and provide convincing experiences to back it up, while at the same time it is all gently poo-pooed by a minister who found that "ghostly footsteps" were really just a wooden floor suffering the effects of leaking pipework! The only woman who didn't win me over was the one who said she had experienced a demon and that she had started to feel the air was polluted and that people were against her hum, wasn't she right though? The film concludes well, with the message still mixed and it does what a documentary should do asks questions rather than ranting one opinion (yes Michael Moore, I'm still talking about you).
Overall this is an interesting little film and one of the best of the documentaries funded via First Cut this year. Worth seeing if you have an interest in this aspect of life and live in the midlands, but still worth seeing even if you don't.