WHAT WOULD JESUS PLAY? was produced for the Fly Films Challenge at the 2003 Seattle International Film Festival. Brian Quist was selected as one of 10 directors to participate in the challenge which offered 10 Seattle documentary filmmakers five days to shoot and five days to edit a short film with only five hours of tape stock. The objective of the challenge was to produce the best short films within the constraints of limited time and limited resources. WHAT WOULD JESUS PLAY? is a five-minute short film analyzing the role religion plays in sports. Through a series of vignettes profiling active religious athletes, ‘WWJP?’ sheds some light on the interdisciplinary relationship between sports and religion, and gets to the bottom of the rhetorical question that many a sports fanatic has pondered.
Production
For the Fly Films Challenge each director (Sherman Alexie, Shannon Gee, John Helde, Tanya Hughes, John Jeffcoat, Leigh Kimball, Jen Peel, Brian Quist, Lynn Shelton and Mark Titus) drew from a hat a Seattle-centric topic on which they had to make their film. Quist drew the topic ‘sports’ as his documentary focus and immediately enlisted the help of co-producer T.J. Martin to come up with an idea.
Together they decided that the film would take an analytical look at the role religion and spirituality plays in sporting culture. Using Jesus Christ as a catalyst they decided to interview a diverse range of people who are both actively athletic and actively religious in some way.
Though the production schedule was tight the two producers managed to get a lot of coverage. Renowned cinematographer Roy Wilson was hired to shoot the film and Erik Aho of Blue Noise Media composed the score for the film. Editing took place the following week, and after only 10 days of production the film was complete.
WHAT WOULD JESUS PLAY? is a film that bounces delicately between satire and reality, depending on how you look at it. From churches to swimming pools, cheerleaders to underwater hockey, Global Griot covered every angle possible and came away with a hilarious yet enlightening documentary film.
WHAT WOULD JESUS PLAY? premiered during the Seattle International Film Festival to a sold-out crowd at the Egyptian Theatre. It was a crowd favorite and has continued to play film festivals in the US and abroad.