Abby Olcese
8 min read ⭑
“I see my work as inviting Christians to expansively and curiously consider how we engage with the world and inviting nonbelievers, or people who’ve been hurt by church and left, to see that Christianity doesn’t have to look like one thing.”
Abigail Olcese is a self-described “church nerd,” film critic and writer. She has written a book called “Films for all Seasons: Experiencing the Church Year at the Movies” and is the film editor at “The Pitch” in Kansas City. Abigail contributes regularly to “Sojourners,” Think Christian, and “Paste Magazine,” and her work focuses on the intersections of cinema, faith, and social justice.
In this interview, Abigail explains how film is spiritually renewing to her and why she’s passionate about bridging the gap between faith and cinema. Continue reading to learn about resources that have been instrumental in her journey, how a horror film deeply influenced her faith, and why community is foundational to all of her work.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
For a few years, Kansas City had a restaurant called Observation Pizza (sadly gone now) that made the most unique pies I’ve ever had. They were takeout-only — no dining room. You paid for your pizza in advance, drove to their kitchen (which was inside an event venue), and texted the staff to let them know you’d arrived. They came out to your car with your pizza. It all felt very clandestine, but that was part of the charm.
My pizza of choice had roasted sweet potato, pine nuts, pickled mushrooms, kale and fontina cheese — flavors you’d never consider putting together, especially on a pizza. But trust me when I say the result was magical. The crust was shatteringly crisp on the outside, perfectly chewy inside.
This all feels very appropriate for the kind of person I am and what I like. I love being happily surprised, whether it’s an unexpected adventure tucked inside an everyday activity or trying something new and discovering an immediate, deep appreciation for it. But as much as I love trying things that are strange or unexpected, I also like it when something simple or familiar really hits the spot — something that’s true for the art I love as much as the food I love!
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QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So, what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?
It feels a little like cheating to say that I love movies and find them spiritually renewing — I mean, I just wrote a whole book about that! But it is true that watching movies and educating myself on filmmakers and film movements is an immensely satisfying practice for me. I also love listening to records and drinking coffee on a Saturday morning and just being. Right now I’m especially into alt-country and ambient country, artists like Charley Crockett, Jason Isbell (the former), Suss and William Tyler (the latter).
I’m an absolute novice at video games, but I play them occasionally to pass time and unwind. Stardew Valley always helps me de-stress. Mario Kart is a great way to kick off Friday night. The game that has my whole heart is Kentucky Route Zero. It's easy to play and mysterious in a way that’s influenced a lot by Twin Peaks, sort of living in that liminal Americana space, with characters who will break your heart. I’ve played it through a couple of times, but I keep coming back every couple of years because I can’t get enough of the vibe.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We're just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?
I grew up in a rural college town where not many people shared my interests. (To be fair, I was into stuff like Monty Python, Douglas Adams and Weird Al, so I didn’t make it easy.) Between that and being a campus radio kid in college, I developed a strong sense of judgment to weed out potential friends from people I didn’t think I could connect with. What that meant, ultimately, is that I closed myself off from a lot of potential friendships very quickly because I was judging others’ cultural knowledge and tastes as soon as I met them. It took living in a series of situations where I wasn’t picking who I lived with (ministry programs, roommates, intentional community) to understand that I should let people — not just art — surprise me, too.
I still struggle with not making an immediate call on whether or not someone is “my kind of person.” I’m trying to be more open to surprise. When someone admits a blind spot, I try to see it as an opportunity to share something I love with someone else and let them share with me in return, not shut them out.
My “fun” answer, though, is rollercoasters. I get embarrassingly stressed out on even the easiest ones.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?
My current obsession (which has really been my professional obsession for most of my adult life) is bridging the gap between faith and art, particularly cinema. I’ve always loved movies, but growing up in the early 2000s, I was constantly confused and disappointed by the religious discourse around them. It was mostly very prescriptive. Most Christian writers I found weren’t considering the art in context, or they looked for the worst examples they could use to condemn certain genres (horror especially) or mainstream secular films as a whole.
I also have many non-Christian friends who understand film as complex art worth engaging with but don’t see the connections I see between certain movies and faith. For example, I once wrote a review of Terrence Malick’s film “A Hidden Life” for a major website that mentioned how beloved he was among progressive Christians, and commenters were either surprised or dubious. How could Christians, who they saw as judgmental, ignorant or even hateful, like good art?
Those experiences were a big part of what powered me to write my new book, “Films for all Seasons,” which looks at the church calendar through the lens of mainstream (that is, secularly-produced) cinema. I see my work as inviting Christians to expansively and curiously consider how we engage with the world and inviting nonbelievers, or people who’ve been hurt by church and left, to see that Christianity doesn’t have to look like one thing.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?
I sometimes describe the way I watch movies as a kind of spiritual synesthesia. I see the world in story, and I pick up on patterns pretty quickly. My favorite thing is watching a movie with no expectation of what’s about to happen and then being gobsmacked by a reference, a philosophical perspective, a metaphor or some other connection to a greater truth. That’s when I feel the Holy Spirit moving. I know it’s God because it gets me really excited, and it’s all I can talk about for days (I have many friends who can attest to this).
A recent example of this was seeing “The Exorcist: Believer,” which objectively isn’t a great movie. But it had so many interesting ideas in it around faith that I was practically vibrating in my seat. I was with a friend who was planning to review it for the paper we both worked for, and at some point he just handed me the notebook and said, “I think you should take this one,” because he could see how I was reacting. I love being able to point out the things I find interesting or invigorating about my faith and make them understandable for people who aren’t church nerds like me.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So spill it, which spiritual practice is workin' best for you right now?
It might sound simplistic to say church, but everything that’s guided my spiritual growth in the last few years has come from the one I attend in Kansas City, which is a community filled with artists and deep thinkers. Almost every resource I used for “Films for All Seasons” came from a conversation I had, a Sunday school class or a sermon. Community is really important for me to get out of my own head and hear what other people are thinking about, what they’re reading and what inspires them. Otherwise, I’m just living in a vacuum, which is no fun at all!
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are some resources that have impacted you?
After college, I was living with my parents and feeling pretty discouraged about my future. I wasn’t sure what lay ahead for me. I started reading Henri Nouwen’s “Life of the Beloved” on my mom’s insistence. Nouwen’s writing about his prayer practice in that book opened the door to a more conversational form of prayer I hadn’t experienced before. It was encouraging during a period of my life where there was a lot of excitement but not a lot of consistency.
The first time I saw Charles Laughton’s 1952 movie “The Night of the Hunter,” it took root in my soul. It’s not a Christian movie (in the sense of being made by Christians and promoting Christianity), but it’s a movie about Christians. I mean that in both its depiction of the rot, hatred and false teaching that a lot of people unfortunately associate with Christianity and the quieter, braver example of what following Jesus should actually look like. That it was made by someone who’d been hurt deeply by the church because of his sexuality astounds me. Even though Laughton thought (not incorrectly) that Christianity was rife with hypocrisy, he still knew that in its truest form, faith can be welcoming to all.
Before I left my episcopal campus ministry position in 2013 to teach abroad, my boss at the time gave me a copy of “Common Prayer” by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. It became my frequent companion over the next several years, going with me from Kansas to California, Europe, Washington D.C. and back. I love the language and rhythm of “The Book of Common Prayer,” and this extension of it reminds me that all the struggles and injustice I see in my own life and in the world are not new to God.
We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season — and tell us what it's done for you.
Last year, Josh Larsen, who runs the website Think Christian, co-hosts the Filmspotting podcast and wrote the forward for “Films for All Seasons,” wrote a book called “Fear Not!” about the spiritual relevance of horror films. Christians historically don’t have a great relationship with horror as a genre, even though some people of faith have made a name for themselves in that space (Scott Derrickson, who made “Sinister” and “The Black Phone,” is a prominent example). Josh’s book does a great job of breaking down the genre and explaining why in many ways it’s the best vehicle for communicating ideas about faith and justice. It’s also particularly appropriate right now since we’re heading into Halloween as I write this.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
“Films for All Seasons” is focused on movies to watch during the liturgical year, but most of the church year is made up of “ordinary time,” when there aren’t any major holidays or seasons going on. When I first started writing the book, a friend of a friend wanted to know what movies I had planned for ordinary time, and I told him the truth — I didn’t! Eventually, I did dedicate the final chapter in the book to that as a way of encouraging readers to take what they’d learned out into the world.
The more I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized there’s a growing trend of recent incredible films that deal with the sacred in the everyday. I’m thinking here of “Janet Planet” and “Perfect Days,” as well as movies like “Fallen Leaves” or “Drive My Car,” that focus on presence and relationships and don’t really have much of a conventional plot — no big conflict or dramatic climax, just people figuring out each other and the world around them. These feel to me like perfect “ordinary time” movies, and I’m hopeful I can write something that explores the deeply spiritual resonance in them.
Abigail has a passion to search for seeds of truth and faith in all sorts of films. She has learned to approach something not labeled as “Christian” with the humility that God can speak through all forms of story. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment and eyes to see him in unexpected places. Ask him to show you the stories, poems, movies, interactions you experience today that have seeds of Truth woven into their fabric and to help those encounters ignite your faith in new ways.
Abby Olcese is a self-described “church nerd,” film critic and writer, and the author of Films for all Seasons: Experiencing the Church Year at the Movies. Her work focuses on the connections between cinema, faith and social justice. Abby is the film editor at The Pitch Magazine in Kansas City, where she lives, and a regular contributor to Sojourners, Think Christian and Paste Magazine.
