Church’s ‘Cinema of Resistance’ film series offers safe space to tackle polarizing issues

An Ocean Beach church has launched a free monthly film series featuring guest panelists discussing timely topics.

Titled “Cinema of Resistance,” the film series is held on occasional Fridays in the chapel space at Resurrection Church, 2083 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., at 7 p.m.

Each month, Dr. John McAteer, a philosopher specializing in film, pairs topics with guests to fuel a conversation about social issues. The film series takes surprising turns – both serious and not.

In this year’s first edition of Cinema of Resistance, McAteer had a panelist from KPBS talking about Night of the Living Dead, and one from Voice of San Diego discussing the use of the iconic film Casablanca as propaganda.

Last month, the film series featured a climate activist from UC San Diego speaking about How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a 2022 fictional film about a group of eight young people who decide to destroy an oil pipeline at two key locations.

McAteer has plans for the first six months of season two, commencing in January, with comedy movies to be followed by more serious topics like immigration and Palestine.

How did Cinema of Resistance come about?

It was the end result of McAteer’s exploration of his love of philosophy and cinematography, and finding a new way to combine those two.

“I wanted to use my skills and talents to talk about things in films, and the ideas behind them, that you usually write about,” he said.

Pointing out undemocratic tendencies like white nationalism, McAteer said recent movements, like the No Kings protests, motivated him to seek ways to address the nation’s “growing mood of despair” by reflecting on its long history in film.

McAteer talked about the idea for his film series with his friends and neighbors, and put up fliers around OB while advertising on social media. That turned out to be the genesis for the creation of the series.

“I wanted to create a space for people to process their thoughts and feelings about things going on in the country,” McAteer said. “I wanted to bring like-minded people together to learn about social issues. I wanted them to become inspired to fight for the common good and for things that make America great, like its diversity and inclusiveness.”

McAteer wants Cinema of Resistance to continue to stimulate discussions surrounding polarizing issues like women’s rights, environmentalism and criminal justice. The idea is then to continually add other subjects to that menu.

“I want to do things on immigration and gun control, Palestine and the Holocaust,” he said. “These topics are going to be controversial for sure. But we’ve always had very good, very friendly discussions about them.”

McAteer described the community conversations his films are inspiring to be “not a debate supporting one point of view over another.” But rather, he noted, the films focus the discussion more on “what we should do” regarding polarizing issues.

Participants, he hopes, may be inspired to think about ways to divert the nation away from the “wrong direction” – abandoning democratic principles – to instead seek peaceful ways to halt any drift toward fascism.

“The price of valuing democracy is resisting anti-democratic forces in our country,” he said.

To see past films/speaker panels in Cinema of Resistance, visit eventbrite.com.