Another Samaritan member wins film festival award
By Samaritan staff · Mar 01, 2012
Colin Gunn’s Indoctrination voted Best Documentary at San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival
Another Samaritan Ministries member has won a major award at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
Colin Gunn, maker of such films as The Widow’s Might and Shaky Town, won Best Documentary for IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America at the 2012 festival held Feb. 23-25 in San Antonio, Texas. The film, co-directed by Colin and Joaquin Fernandez, was made by driving an old school bus across the U.S. to “uncover the origins and social impact of our modern public education system and gauge it against God’s Word.” It also was named runner-up for the Best of Festival Award.
Samaritan members Curtis Bowers and his family won the 2010 Best of Festival Award for Agenda: Grinding America Down, an expose on the multigenerational communist plan to take over our nation and culture. Curtis served as a judge at this year’s festival.
Another Samaritan tie to the festival winners was Matt Blick, who has made promotional videos for Samaritan Ministries and its Morning Center project. Matt’s promo for the annual Liberty Day event in northern Illinois won the award for Best Commercial Advertisement.
And the Winton family, profiled in the February 2012 Christian Health Care Newsletter, were semifinalists with their Rescued: The Heart of Adoption and Caring for Orphans film.
Finally, festival host Doug Phillips of Vision Forum is a Samaritan member as well.
Other films Colin has made are The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, which won Best of Festival Award at the SAICFF in 2007; Shaky Town, winner of the Best Political Film category in 2004; Captivated: Finding Freedom in a Media Captive Culture; and The Widow’s Might, which won the Best of Festival and Audience Choice awards in 2009 at San Antonio.
In a festival press release, Colin said that IndoctriNation was made for “others out of genuine love for the concerns of children in America.”
“We were so blessed to give this message,” Colin said. “And at the end of the film [we] make it clear: The problem with public schools is that [they] drive children away from Christ. And that was the real reason for making this film, and we pray that the Lord was glorified in it.”
A homeschooling dad, Colin, originally from Scotland, lives in Texas with his wife, Emily, and their eight children.
Congratulations to Colin Gunn, Matt Blick, and the Wintons for their achievements in film. We pray they’ll continue to impact this medium for the Kingdom of God.