Kevin Miller’s new documentary goes beyond Christian views.
Kevin Miller, an Abbostford-based screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, has recently completed a provocative and controversial documentary. The film’s topic is a place that conjures up images of a fiery abyss, where its victims are sentenced to eternal damnation and punishment: hell.
Miller calls from Abbotsford, and begins to fervidly discuss his reasons for making the film. He has just arrived back from promotional screenings in California.
Hellbound?, Miller explains, is inspired by one very powerful memory, and a startling realization: “I became a Christian when I was nine years old. Even though my grandfather was a minister, and we kind of went to church, we weren’t necessarily a Christian family.” Miller pauses before continuing, “I remember one evening very vividly. It was a beautiful summer evening, and I was going out to help my family in the garden. I stopped on the driveway and looked at them. For the first time it struck me that if they didn’t believe what I believed, then they were all going to hell.”
[pullquote]“I remember one evening very vividly. It was a beautiful summer evening, and I was going out to help my family in the garden. I stopped on the driveway and looked at them. For the first time it struck me that if they didn’t believe what I believed, then they were all going to hell.”[/pullquote]
This sudden realization left Miller conflicted. “It puts you in a difficult position,” he explains, “because you think that you have discovered something you really fit into, but suddenly there is this bad side to it — a dark side.”
Miller emphasizes this experience because it led him to scrutinize the common views of Christian theology, which he felt revealed contradictions. “Although you are taught that God is love and forgiveness, behind that is a God that will ultimately not forgive. Even though we are supposed to love our enemies and forgive them, God won’t.”
Hellbound? attempts to expose these contradictions, and ask other daring questions. Although Miller declares that “a price can be paid for challenging the majority,” he made this documentary “to provoke informed discussion.”
[pullquote]At Hellbound?’s core is an argument that suggests how dangerous opposing viewpoints can be.[/pullquote]
This informed discussion doesn’t simply stop at Christian theology though. At Hellbound?’s core is an argument that suggests how dangerous opposing viewpoints can be. “Everything is so polarized, especially in America, and the people that disagree with you, they don’t just hold different views — they are wrong [to each other]. I think this ‘us vs. them’ theology is percolating under most of our public discourse.”
In an attempt to illustrate this discourse and opposition, Miller frames the documentary around the events of 9/11. Miller argues that “there are real world implications [with personal bias and belief] that go deep into our psychology . . . this is something that I am really trying to get at in this film, that there is a direct connection between what we believe and the world we create as a result.”
Hellbound? presents an eclectic group of speakers who range from pastors like Mark Driscoll to musicians like Oderus Urungus from the metal band Gwar. “I wanted to cast the net as far as possible,” states Miller. “I wanted to show that we all know the hell story, have an opinion about it, and it is somehow affecting our lives.”
While Miller identifies himself as Christian, he asserts that his view of Christianity has shifted over the course of his life. “My sense of what it means to be Christian has changed. It is not about joining a tribe,” Miller speaks quickly, but exalts his next words. “Christianity isn’t about exclusion . . . and it is not about vanquishing your enemies.”
At the end of the interview, Miller offers some reasons why Simon Fraser University students should watch his film: “I think it is a fascinating discussion whether you have written off religion or you are a diehard Hell believer. I would encourage you to come to this movie, because I think you will find something that intrigues you, or makes you mad. But I don’t think you will go away saying that it was a waste of time.”
