As a boy of just 6 or 7 years, filmmaker of faith Craig Detweiler's career was first shaped when his mother took him to a cinematic re-release of the 1965 film, The Sound of Music. He was awed by the famous hilltop in the opening scene, and remembers the moment he first knew that a career in the cinematic arts was his destiny. "I was surprised to discover that the Von Trapp family's supportive manager was called Max Detweiler. I decided Detweilers are supposed to be in entertainment!" he says.
Detweiler is a producer, screenwriter, author, lecturer, and the co-director of Reel Spirituality: An Institute for Moving Images at Fuller Theological Seminary. He also authors two blogs (conservantlife.com and craig.purplestateofmind.com) about his day-to-day relationship with his two passions: faith and film. "I feel honored to join this community," he says, about his move into academia with this, his first college teaching position. "And I'm quite eager to meet the students."
Detweiler's students will no doubt be eager to meet him, too, especially when they learn about an entertainment and media initiative he is in the early stages of planning with Provost Daryl Tippens that will create links between Pepperdine and the larger film industry.
We ask: Who is your favorite movie character of all time?
"I love Rick Blaine from Casablanca. It was Humphrey Bogart's first romantic role. Love pulls him beyond his cynicism and indifference to get involved, to take a risk, to outmaneuver the Nazis."