This piece was created in my junior year at The University of the Arts in response to an assignment in Peter Rose’s class Experiments in Advanced Digital Video. The only instructions were to “make a film about the soul” which was left open to the class to interpret however they wanted. Surprisingly, I took it literally and went to Mount Moriah Baptist Church, just one block from my house in South Philadelphia. I recorded an entire Sunday morning service at Mount Moriah Baptist Church and selected the song “God Never Fails,” sung by a boy with a surprisingly powerful voice, to work with for my assignment. I had overheard him being scolded for his behavior in Sunday School before the service and was surprised and delighted to see him perform. 

As an atheist and a twenty-something know-it-all, I couldn’t help but make a tongue-in-cheek commentary by showing the dilapidated area around the church, which was undergoing a massive redevelopment at the time. I never went back to recreate my ending pan with footage once the new housing project was complete, but you can see on Google Maps that the block and the church revitalized and looking great. Maybe God did reward these devoted parishioners for their faith?

The piece was used as a promotional video for the University of the Arts’ film department for many years and another professor, John Columbus, enjoyed the piece so much he awarded it director’s choice in the Black Maria Film Festival (now the Thomas Edison Film Festival) in 2005. The church received a VHS copy of the completed piece.