This week, The Knockturnal was on the scene for the Armor Of Light premiere at Celeste Bartos Theater at MoMA.
The film follows an Evangelical minister and the mother of a teenage shooting victim who ask, is it possible to be both pro-gun and pro-life?
From the film: Reverend Rob Schenck, Lucy McBath, director Abigail E. Disney, co director/producer Kathleen Hughes, executive producer Gini Reticker and producer Eva Anisko walked the red carpet.
Lucy McBath
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Can you tell me a little about the documentary and the process to create it?
Well the documentary forces people to do some critical thinking about faith, what faith means to them, and the gun violence culture and how morally they fit in the dynamics of the gun violence culture. As Christians we have a moral responsibility to the sanctity and preservation of life, which means thou shall not kill, as the 2nd commandment. So to critically think about your willingness to be more, meant to the 2nd amendment right, which was created by man, not inspired by God, and the second commandment inspired by God for man, and getting people to logically think, and to morally think that by the second amendment right does not hold water to the 2nd commandment, Thou shall not kill.
How did making this documentary effect your opinion on the subject?
It makes my opinion much stronger, because I had an inkling about the way that this country was feeling about guns, but I didn’t really understand their dynamics and use of the 2nd amendment as the stronghold and how their investing their faith as means of, you know, “this is our absolute right, given to us by God” and so it’s not really your right to gun people down, needless to say.
Abigail Disney
How did you start writing and production of this documentary Did you have this specific story in mind when you began the initial start up?
I thought, and thought, and thought, about this issue for a very long time, and I have seen the paralyzed and very broken political dilemma, and so this is the result of how you change political dynamics and impulses on both sides are to push harder, and what you get is a lock, so I wanted to go around that. So I thought, where is the place where the language is most contradictory and it’s really the pro life world, who is so anti man, that every human life has value and still deadlocked with NRA values its not just that they are promoting gun life culture, it’s more that they are creating a culture and a language of romance and excitement and exhilaration around guns, that’s the problem. So it’s the most inconsistent possible, within their life span. So I wanted to see if anyone on their side that was a good intended person who was willing to entertain the idea that there is a terrible inconsistency.
What do you want to come of this documentary?
Well most documentaries kind of, ya know, make you sign a petition, there’s always a thing. But this is a big enormous issue, and it’s not going to go away over night. We need conversations, we need dialogue, we need discourse. That’s what I am trying to do, is get people thinking, get people talking to one another. I want to have lots and lots of screenings, in churches, in schools, because people stay and they can talk and something really shifts in people. I really think that it’s dialogue first, then legislation.
Do you think that having a minister as the narrator creates that effect?
O yes, he (Reverend Rob Schenck) is such an extraordinary voice, he is eloquent, because it comes from his heart, and you know, this is all kinds of risk here for him. So it takes a lot of courage, and people really are motivated by people of courage.
Following the screening and Q+A, guests made their way down the street to Monkey Bar for cocktails and canapes.
-JC Routh