GFA: The Easter Collection

Part of the Gospel Films Archive series, The Easter Collection compiles a quartet of short Christian films (from various production houses active in the 1950s and ‘60s) centering Jesus Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection. “Dawn of Victory” (1966) is a straightforward dramatization of Christ's final hours and the ensuing confusion among followers after Jesus exits the tomb, covering the Crucifixion from the perspective of two secret followers, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. In the rushed 12-minute “The Lord's Ascension” (1952)—the final episode in Family Films' The Living Bible series—the imagery feels almost incidental to the narration concerning the period between Christ's Crucifixion and Ascension. Much better is the “The Other Wise Man” (1969), a touching account of a Persian who intended to join the three magi in meeting the infant Jesus, but was thrown off course by his own kind act toward another; his adventures over the next 33 years in trying to see Jesus ends in a final, beautiful irony. The wild card in this collection is “The Antkeeper” (1966), writer-director Rolf Forsberg's surreal psychedelic allegorical tale (somewhat reminiscent of “bad trip” scenes from the era's B-movies) about an old man gardener who turns his son into an ant and sends him into the garden to deal with ants fighting amongst themselves (incidentally, Forsberg's 1964 “Parable”—another Christian allegory, this time set in a circus—was entered into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 2012). Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)