 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
Lost Sparrow (Chris Billing, 2009)
BY: Denis Haack |
|
Chris Billing is an unassuming man, a journalist and documentarian who cares enough for the truth that he is willing to pursue it even at personal cost. For ten years he worked as a journalist in China, from 1996-2001 serving as Beijing Bureau Chief for NBC News. Now he lives and works out of Washington, DC, beginning Small Handful Productions to make documentary films. His first production, Up To The Mountain, Down To The Village (2005) records the story of Mao’s youth re-education campaign during the infamous Cultural Revolution in the decade leading up to 1976. Now he has written, produced, and directed Lost Sparrow, which is available for purchase in DVD (www.lostsparrowmovie.com) and will be featured in the Fall 2010 lineup of PBS’s Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens. The national broadcast is scheduled for Nov. 16, 2010, and will be Lost Sparrow’s television premier.
Lost Sparrow is a deeply personal story for Chris to tell. He grew up in a comfortable Baptist home into which his parents adopted four siblings from a troubled family on the Crow Reservation in Montana. One night two of the brothers, Bobby (13 years old) and Tyler (11) ran away and in the process were struck by a passing train and killed. Questions remained about the event and as Chris has discovered, his adopted brothers had left to try to find help for their sister Lana. Discovering the true story has meant uncovering painful truths about his past, his parents, and the tragedy that had occurred so long ago and that continues to send tendrils of destruction into lives and relationships.
We recommend Lost Sparrow. Not because it is easy to watch, but because Chris Billing models what it means to be a Christian in a fallen world who has a chance to tell a story and chooses to tell it true.
Questions:
-
Source:
Lost Sparrow (2009)
www.lostsparrowmovie.com
Produced, written & directed by Chris Billing
Runtime: 78 minutes
|
 |
|
Denis Haack
Denis is the author of The Rest of Success: What the World Didn’t Tell You About Having It All and has written articles for such journals as Reformation & Revival Journal, Eternity, Covenant, and World. He holds a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Covenant Seminary in St. Louis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul, 2012)
Snow White and The Huntsman (Rupert Sanders, 2012)
Departures (Yôjirô Takita, 2008)
The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012)
The Mill and the Cross (Lech Majewski, 2011)
The Sunset Limited (Tommy Lee Jones, 2012)
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)
Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck, 2011)
The Conspirator (Robert Redford, 2010)
True Grit (Coen Brothers, 2011)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
127 Hours (Danny Boyle, 2010)
The King's Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
Away From Her (Sarah Polley, 2006)
Lost Sparrow (Chris Billing, 2009)
Get Low (Aaron Schneider, 2009)
Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
|
|
|
|
|
There are tulips on my desk, and I saw my first robin yesterday, clear signals that winter is losing its grip on the landscape. The newspaper reported an ice jam on a nearby river that forced the closure of several roads. Chunks of ice the size of dinner tables slammed through a county park. Even something as glorious of the arrival of spring is never as perfectly smooth as we would hope in this broken world. We are, as my spiritual mentor used to say, glorious ruins.
Finding what it means to flourish as broken human being in an imperfect world is what Ransom is about. We believe in Jesus Christ, though often find ourselves dismayed at what passes for Christianity in our postmodern world. We hope what you find on this site will be helpful in your own pilgrimage, regardless of where you happen to find yourself at the moment.
Denis & Margie Haack
Anita Gorder
|
|
|
|
