As a person who’s seen approximately 500 films since January 2011, going to a movie on my days off is not high on my priority list. Even when I do make an exception, it’s incredibly rare that I do so on Sundays. After church, all I want to do is come home and veg out. Unlike a lot of folks, movie watching is not my idea of how to relax—usually. And yet this past Sunday I was chomping at the bit to watch Jerusalem in 3-D—a new National Geographic documentary narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch (from the BBC’s Sherlock, Oscar-winner 12 Years a Slave, Star Trek Into Darknessand lots of others) playing in approximately 40 IMAX theaters, mainly in the U.S., but also in Canada, Germany, Australia and France.
The reason I was so bent upon catching Jerusalem is, as I mentioned in a blog a few weeks back on a different subject, my wife and I (and six friends) visited the Holy Land last Thanksgiving. I was eager to re-live our life-changing trip, and revisit places we now know well (and be introduced to several we missed).
So my wife and I and one of the six that went with us to Israel donned our 3-D glasses and took in the 45-minute IMAX journey. Almost instantly, we were back in Israel (virtually speaking), winding down the narrow city streets, splashing in Hezekiah’s water tunnel, listening to worship inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and rubbing shoulders with the potpourri of people who call the Old City home.
Before you run out and see this one thinking that it’s a “Christian” movie, however, I need to point out that Jerusalem is essentially a “journey film”—one that takes you to Jerusalem and gives you a tour without having to leave the IMAX. Although the Christian quarter of Jerusalem is part of the tour, so are the Jewish and Muslim districts.
Two days after seeing the film, I was on the phone with Daniel Ferguson, the director. When I asked him why he made it, he responded that it’s “one of the best subjects for IMAX, the ultimate bucket list” destination for many people around the globe. He explained that the film took five years to produce (from raising the funds to final editing), and that he made 14 trips to Israel in the process. I asked him, “What do you hope to accomplish with this film?” He replied:
I’d be happy if [film goers] got their money’s worth, that they got to go to Jerusalem… The broader goal is to get people to think about Jerusalem…Jerusalem is the cornerstone. Why are we reading about it every day in the newspapers? …This city has a 5,000-year history that’s so rich we need a second look.
One particular story made an impression. He shared about a couple who lived in Jerusalem most of their lives, but now reside in Boston. After seeing the film, they told Ferguson that they’d just seen two parts of the city they had never seen before. If you want to see parts of Jerusalem you might’ve missed on your last trip to the Holy Land, or you simply want to visit the city for the very first time, you might want to consider touring via IMAX. For a list of cities and IMAX theaters currently carrying Jerusalem, click here.
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