Films for orally-oriented audiences

Creating films for orally-oriented audiences,
particularly for non-Western audiences
The JESUS Film 

The JESUS Film has been successful for more than thirty-four years.  In Bible translation circles, that would be a remarkable achievement for a version of the Scripture that continues to be considered vibrant.  Revision is usually in order in fifteen to twenty years, because every language changes constantly and audiences change.  The JESUS Film Project has been upgrading their product over the years.

However, their guides for upgrading are not the reasons for which we am proposing a different version of the JESUS Film.  The reasons for a different version would seem to be:

• We now understand more about how to communicate to oral learners.  We know that oral learners do not process new information the same way the literate persons might process it.
• We now recognize that cross-cultural communication is more effective when it is tailored in respect to the worldview of the audience.
• We know that most audiences in the non-Western world practically have no knowledge of Jesus, Christianity or the Bible.  We must assume that we are responsible to communicate those truths.
• We recognize that people change their attitudes and make decisions most often because of personal interactions—a human persuading a human.
• We know that oral communication is has its greatest effect when ambiguity is minimized.

This presentation assumes that the team will translate the voice parts of the movie by an audio to audio process.  We suggest that it will produce a version of the movie that will be effective.

• It will be effective because it communicates the message through a contemporary speaker of the language (the Story-teller).
• It will be effective because it attempts to present the message through the worldview of the audience instead of attempting to reshape the audience’s worldview to the worldview of the New Testament (which was the effort of the original JESUS Film, since was attempting to authenticate the text of Luke).
• It will be effective because the communication situation is similar to the natural ways for communicating moral teaching to an audience.  Most are accustomed to learning from oral speeches by their elder people.

The task

When a team plans for developing the film for an audience in the non-Western world, they should assume certain factors about the audience and about oral learners in general.  They should assume that:

• Those viewers have no knowledge of events in the New Testament. 
  • ​The team must assume that the audience knows nothing about those events of long ago. 
  • The team should assume that the individuals have experienced no interactions with Christians.  Even if some might have had some contacts with Christians, it is not likely that any knowledge they gained of the events of the New Testament was accurate.
  • The team must assume that the audience does not know who was the man Jesus whom we Christians affirm was God’s Representative.
  • The team must not even assume that the people already recognize that Jesus as the most important person to us Christians.  Many assume that Mary is more important.  Some feel that the Pope is more important than even Jesus.
  • The team must not assume that the people know that Jesus taught moral truths or even that many people follow those truths.

• Those viewers hold to a worldview that excludes the Christian worldview.
  The team should not assume that the audience is interested in anything more than being entertained.  The people are unresisting at best.  Some among them will be resistant at first.  The team must assume that the message will be effective immediately with most individuals.  Neither should they assume that with every audience will respond as expected.  Some individuals have had experiences with false Christianity and are now hostile.  (However, we would be foolish to assume that the whole language group is hostile.)
• The story-teller who introduces the movie and who explains the Christian truths will be effective because he is a credible communicator—a human speaking to humans.  The team should assume that viewers will often respond to a human-to-human invitation to commit themselves to follow Jesus.

Some presuppositions about how to deliver the message to audiences

The team must recognize that many of their previous presuppositions about audiences are no longer valid.  They must form new presuppositions.

• Audiences watching a whole movie at one sitting will be useful only in the early days of the first release.  After the first release, and more importantly for small audiences, the presentation in segments with time for discussions will be much more effective toward individuals making lasting commitments to the truth.
• The themes in the movie must be clear, straight forward and unambiguous.
• The appeals should be compelling, facilitated by the human-to-human bonding.
• The whole message must be fitting to the general worldview of the language group.  We should plan it for evangelizing the general audience, not to merely remind churched people of the message.