NaFF doc Raw Faith finds Rev. Marilyn Sewell balancing different kinds of love; D'Angelo tribute revives neo-soul classic
by Ron WynnArticle Tools
Peter Wendesmith's Raw Faith, which premieres 7:45 p.m. Friday at the Nashville Film Festival and will also be shown Sunday, explores one of the toughest issues in religious circles: the balance between personal and spiritual love.
Wendesmith spent two years filming Rev. Marilyn Sewell, senior minister at the First Unitarian Church of Portland. During her tenure the church's membership has grown from 600 to 1,600 ministers and she's become one of the nation's most celebrated, in-demand public speakers. Wendesmith's work, his first full-length documentary, profiles Sewell at a moment of great change in her life — as she falls in love for the first time and begins to question how much love she has to give, and where it should go.
"I loved the idea of a minister who is a real human being," Wendesmith says. "We all go through transitions in our life and we have to face hard truths about ourselves and others. When we do it honestly and vulnerable, we are going to end up better in the end."
Raw Faith has won NPT's "Human Spirit" Award, which Wendesmith will publicly receive at Friday night's screening. In addition, he will attend both screenings along with Sewell and executive producers Ashley and Scott MacEachern. Wendesmith said getting the award is both a personal boost and reaffirmation of his motivation for the project."I'm thrilled about the award," Wendesmith says. "I believe very deeply in the potential of the human spirit, even in dark times. This is fantastic. Marilyn had devoted herself completely to the church, and there's no question that when she entered a relationship with George she had to radically change her identity. I never saw her faith in God waiver, but her relationship to her faith did change. It seemed to grow in a wider area. I think the intimacy changed, yet also deepened her faith."
Wendesmith adds Raw Faith was designed to spotlight a specific situation and person rather than explore wider questions regarding faith and intimacy. "Marilyn's situation wasn't like the issue in other faiths where religious leaders aren't allowed to have intimate relationships," Wendesmith says. "That's a complex issue and one that certainly deserves to be explored, but her situation transcends that one and we looked specifically at it."
Berry Street mixes music, faith
Singer/songwriter Brian Gentry is utilizing a different forum to showcase tunes from his new CD Dirt For A Crown. Well known in the Contemporary Christian and gospel music camps through past releases with the group Peace and the duo Marvin & Gentry, he'll be performing songs from the solo work Saturday night in an CD release event at the Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center, 225 Berry Street (corner of Berry & Meridian Street). It's the latest in a series of events the worship center presents as part of an overall mission of community service and inspiration through non-traditional and more orthodox spiritual presentations.
"We try to schedule a coffee house or concert once a month," says Steve Simms, who along with his wife Ernie Froedge Simms has been leader of the Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center the past two years. "We've had a jazz group, a rapper, professional jingle singer (Scatt Springs) and we're careful to vary the concerts. We're open to any type of music so long as it has a positive and uplifiting message."
Simms, whose commentaries on faith, spiritualty and politics are featured Sundays in the Tennessean's blogger/citizen journalism section, has added several components to the center's Friday evening and Sunday morning worship services and programs. These range from personal testimony moments to periodic events for children, prayer walks in the community, services for recovering addicts, and many other things designed to embrace and reach those most in need of the Center's services and message. Twice a month volunteers from the Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood help serve meals at the Center.
Simms also maintains a Facebook page which provides updates and information about Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center activities and events. A 20-year Nashville resident, Simms characterizes the concerts and other presentations as just "part of our goal of reaching the people who need our help and serving the community in every possible way."
R&B special series
Producer and promoter Toya Haynes created the Kid Electric concert series two years ago as a way to combine providing more exposure for local artists and raising money for various Music City charities. Her first event gave a fiscal jump start to the Nashville Homeless Power Project and cemented the series' concept of having various Nashville soul, R&B and urban music performers do songs from classic releases in concert.
Friday night's latest Kid Electric concert spotlights the album many cite as the definitive release in the neosoul genre by a male vocalist. D'Angelo's Brown Sugar fused rousing vocals with arresting rhythms and sensual lyrics in a romantic and musical masterpiece. A host of top artists will be doing tunes from Brown Sugar in performance at the Rutledge, 410 4th Ave. S., beginning at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m., $10) Joey Richey, Joint Heirs, Darnell Levine, Mike Hicks, Mario Moore, Ricky Braddy, Jonathan Winstead, J. Abrams, William Davenport and Jerami Matlock are among those on the bill. Proceeds will be going to the area's Big Brothers and Big Sisters organizations."We always try to pick an album of major importance in modern popular music, especially Soul and R&B," Haynes says. "Brown Sugar was so critical 15 years ago to helping popularize neo-soul. The same was true for Mary J. Blige's What's the 411, another album we've covered in the series."
The Kid Electric Series' high point thus far was last summer's sold-out event featuring Michael Jackson's Off The Wall. "That was such an incredible event," Haynes recalls. "The city had gone through a tough period with the loss of Steve McNair locally, plus we had just lost Michael Jackson nationally. People really came out and responded, and the artists we had were at their best that evening.
"I always announce at the end of a show what our next concert will be," Haynes says. "But I think the support we're getting for these shows demonstrates the hunger that the audience has for quality shows and their willingness to help organizations in the city trying to help those in need. We hope the series inspires people to go work for positive change while taking advantage of the chance to hear some great music."
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