The Photo-Drama of Creation, or Creation-Drama, is a four-part Christian film (eight hours in total) produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania under the direction of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Bible Student movement. The film presents their beliefs about God's plan from the creation of the earth through to the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.
Video The Photo-Drama of Creation
History
Production began in 1912, and the presentation was introduced to audiences in 1914. It was the first major screenplay to incorporate synchronized sound, moving film, and color slides. Russell also published an accompanying book, Scenario of the Photo-Drama of Creation, in various languages.
It is about 8 hours in length and was presented in four parts. This presentation took the audience from the time of creation to the end of the Millennium. The presentation premiered in January 1914 in New York, and in the summer of 1914 in Germany. Over 9,000,000 people in North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia saw either the full Photo-Drama or an abbreviated version called the Eureka-Drama.
Shows that combined magic lantern slides and films were common at the time, but the addition of recorded speech was unusual, and the magnitude of its distribution for a single religious production was particularly notable. At the time, the project's full cost was estimated at about $300,000 (current value $7,330,000).
Maps The Photo-Drama of Creation
Content
The Photo-Drama purports that the seven creative "days" in the Book of Genesis equal 49,000 years, based on Russell's belief that each creative day lasts 7,000 years. It further claims that 48,000 years have already passed, such that the final thousand years are "near at hand".
See also
- List of longest films by running time
References
External links
- The "Eureka Drama" Helped Many to Find Bible Truth
- Photo-Drama: A 100-Year-Old Epic of Faith
- The Photo-Drama of Creation on IMDb
- Internet Archive of the complete Photo-Drama of Creation
- RealMedia: The Photo-Drama of Creation
- Pastor Russell´s ministry
Further reading
- Richard Alan Nelson, "Propaganda for God: Pastor Charles Taze Russell and the Multi-Media Photo-Drama of Creation (1914)," in Roland Cosandey, André Gaudreault, and Tom Gunning, editors, Une Invention du diable? Cinéma des premiers temps et religion - An Invention of the Devil? Religion and Early Cinema, Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada: Les Presses de l'Université Laval & Lausanne, Suisse: Éditions Payot Lausanne, 1992, 230-255; ISBN 2-7637-7300-1.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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