Sharing Jesus’ Teachings and Spreading Love in the World

UIW Faculty Writes Screen Play for "Light of the World" Animated Film

The UIW College of Humanities, Arts and Socials Sciences (CHASS) has many talented educators who are dedicated to upholding the CHASS goal of challenging, inspiring and preparing students to reimagine the world and shape the future (uiw.edu/chass). Dr. David Armstrong, associate professor of Creative Writing and English, is one of these notable educators who recently got the opportunity to demonstrate his skills by working on his first theatrical animated film project.

In November of 2022, Armstrong was hired as a script consultant to work on "Light of the World," a 2-D animated film that tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of his youngest apostle, John. Armstrong traveled to California to meet with the film's director, producers and story board artists to revise a script they had originally prepared. He knew that an immense amount of consideration needed to be given when adapting the Gospels, as there are many avenues and perspectives for the story to be told and, simultaneously, many ways to make mistakes.

After four days of continuous revision, Armstrong and the team decided how they could potentially make a feature-length film that tells Christ's story in a way that children can engage with, learn and enjoy.

"One night, I woke up in my Airbnb at 1:30 a.m. and I had this vision of young John, the Apostle, at age thirteen, hustling through a crowded city street, trying to get his family's haul of fish to the market," recalled Armstrong. "I could see this version of John so clearly that I couldn't go back to sleep. I pulled out my laptop and worked for three hours on what would become the beginning of the movie. I handed these four pages to the producer. Unbeknownst to me, he handed it to the director, and unbeknownst to him, the director handed it to the executive producer, who called me three days later and offered me the job of writing a whole new film from scratch. There was only one catch: he needed the full draft of 90 pages in one month to show their international network of ministries and distributors."

Twenty-eight days later, Armstrong handed the team the first draft of the film and after receiving approval from both producers and the distributors, they had a movie.

Although Armstrong's first draft was altered, the team collectively worked to tell the core narrative of John as a boy trying to navigate a sometimes-harsh world with nothing but his unwavering faith and love for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Between December 2022 and November 2023, Armstrong wrote four drafts that incorporated input from directors, producers and artists before finalizing a production script.

Uniquely, Armstrong was able to bring his brother Drew Armstrong, a Biblical scholar with two advanced theological degrees, into the screen writing process to ensure that they produced an accurate screenplay that reflected the life of Jesus.

"That decision turned out to be one of the absolute best aspects of working on this film-and one of the most enjoyable times of my life," expressed Armstrong. "I'd only intended to rely on Drew's knowledge of scripture, Biblical history, Greek and other languages to ensure we were doing right by the texts. What I hadn't expected was how well Drew and I worked together as creative partners. We hashed out scenes together, imagining the lives they must have lived at this time in history, discussing ways to incorporate the teachings of Jesus and finding ways to make the story enjoyable on the level of an animated movie."

A considerable level of detail was incorporated into this film that would allow audiences to immerse themselves in the film's historically accurate world. Details included the currency of first century AD, armor and clothing designs, native fauna found in the region, how the Jewish kingdoms operated under Roman rule, the political differences between Sadducees and Pharisees and the makeup of the Sanhedrin (the religious and legislative assembly). Armstrong and the team even mapped out the distance of towns Jesus and his followers traveled to in order to calculate travel times. He shared that all of these intentional details, whether they go noticed or not, shaped the story of the film.

"One intentional detail I wanted to incorporate was just how important the women in this world were," shared Armstrong. "These women still don't get enough screentime … One of these women, Mary directly impacts John's journey, which emphasizes how important she was to the narrative of Jesus. In the film she tells John, 'God rarely shows up in the ways you think He will.' I tried to avoid having important characters like Mary say things that didn't come directly from scripture, but this line felt like a distillation of what Mary must have known as a larger truth … yet still she found the strength to carry on through her unimaginable heartbreak. That is an incredible strength I find hard to fathom."

On Friday, Sept. 5, "Light of the World" was released nationally in theaters. Armstrong and his family, were able to attend the film's premiere in Washington, D.C. at the Museum of the Bible. After having seen the film on the big screen, he shares that the aspect of this film that he is most proud of is the number of times characters are shown doing good for one another in seemingly simple ways, including feeding the hungry, sheltering the outcasts, listening to other's pain, serving without shame, all while seeking nothing in return. These were the impactful acts of Jesus and what he sought to teach.

"I hope anyone who sees this film, whether they believe in the factuality of the story or not, recognizes at its heart a desire to spread love in the world through real acts of service, to alleviate the suffering of others, to seek truth, even when it isn't popular, and to simply stand up for the less fortunate who need you, just like Jesus taught."

"At CHASS we are blessed to have outstanding talent, that transforms into student success. Dr. Armstrong is one of those exemplary individuals that brings excellence framed into compassionate and caring pedagogy allowing our students to flourish," shared the Dean of CHASS Dr. Javier Clavere. "CHASS is the Spirit of UIW, and Dr. Armstrong's work reflects that spirit by advancing our institutional Mission and charism."

Click here to learn more about "Light of the World."