The question of truth in our world, the question of how we know what is real and what is not, what happened or what did not happen, or who we are and who we are not leads us again and again to the question Pontius Pilate famously asked of Jesus during his trial in the book of John two thousand years ago, “What is truth?” Jesus for his part, made the question of truth personal, claiming that he was himself in some sense The Truth. If we are right then, in thinking of truth as somehow relational, personal, and laden with human qualities like responsibility and honesty, then it follows that you and I can have a relationship with this truth; or perhaps with God through this truth. This relationship starts with the reality that we find thrust upon us at birth, with a cold rush of air, a bright light, and a sensation of discomfort and pain. Our first response is a collective cry of confusion and abandonment, and the rest of our lives constitute an attempt to figure out just where the hell we are, peppered with glimpses of heaven. Any relationship with the truth or journey in search of it will necessarily have to wind its way, like Dante, through the Inferno while looking up to the Paradiso. Documentary film for me constitutes a powerful medium through which to explore this relationship to truth.
– from the upcoming book “How to Film the Truth: The Story of Documentary Film As a Spiritual Journey” to be released in the Spring of 2018 by Wipf & Stock