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Documentary cinemaServe Not Create Genre: Сultural and Educational Duration: 39 minutes The aim of art is the commitment to giving…
Where would we place the comma in the phrase: ” Serve Not Create” ? To be a priest and simultaneously a secular Bohemian, like a musician, poet, or artist: is it possible in principle? Can a priest be allowed to be engaged in off-church plays? Where is the separation line between the right to be engaged in arts and the full devotion to religious service?
Among priests, whose destiny now is the work in small parishes and the modest life without the big city hustle, there are those who "in that past life" could have earned fame in the art. Today’s fame of a poet, writer, artist or musician is not generally very high-profile. The point is not in the numbers of fans. The right to be in the art, natural for any layman, seems to be rather limited for a priest not only by his self-censorship in the church, but also by a devotion of resources to the service to the extent that leaves no strength for anything else. An artist who sparingly expends himself in art is a flawed personality by poet Pasternak’s definition. Also, there exists a wisdom that the priest lives on the earth, but works in the heavens. How should he combine his divine preaching and an everyday routine in this case? The choice between the church service and a favourite activity literally tears apart minds of such people… There are exceptions, though… Our film is dedicated to exactly these strange heroes. This is the point that we want to find out, whether it is really strange that many priests today do not leave arts, but on the contrary, they work to bring about a deep, "missionary" sense into it, trying to bring the word of truth to those who find it difficult to see the truth in other ways. We want to talk about these people: people with various life stories, with various occupations but unified by one soul urge: the urge to create and urge to be with God. So, here are some of our main characters: Many of those in the religious service left their secular musical occupations behind. Archpriest Andrey Bondarenko, a cleric of the Holy Intercession Cathedral of Grodno, Belarus is also known as an active composer. An ordained priest can easily be converted into an icon painter. It is more difficult for him to remain a secular artist. Archpriest Nikolay Nikolayevich Abramov, Rector of St. Smolensk Parish of Murom, has not changed his calling, but now the service interferes with his established name of an artist. There is just no time for exhibitions, self-promotion, or paintings to order…, even if he still paints.
Archpriest Sergiy Kruglov from Minusinsk does not stop writing his poetry. His colleague in service and in poetry, Priest Konstantin Kravtsov, serves in a church in Moscow. A writer can have sufficient material for morality stories even in a small provincial parish. Priest Aleksandr Dyachenko is the author of almost two hundred stories. He notes that he just interprets life. To invent stories, as real writers do, priests must not. It is a totally different occupation. Priest Georgiy Belodurov, the author of a science fiction novel The World Noon, has a different point of view. Aleksey Romanov (Hierodeacon Rafail in the monastery) began singing at school. He was baptized and spiritually nourished by the famous pastor Father Valerian Krechetov. Blessed by him, in the early 90s, he came as a novice to Optin Monastery. He was ordained a Hierodeacon there. Then he became a lay brother to Iliy, Russian Patriarch. Patriarch Iliy gave his blessing to Father Rafail to create Sons of Russia Orthodox Musical Group. Father Rafail is an author, singer and guitar player there. The first performance of the Group took place in Yaroslavl in memory of martyrs and confessors of Russia. More than 10 albums of the Group have already been published. We will discuss various topics with the film heroes: Is it possible to pursue two venues of life at the same time: religion service and art? Is there a fine and fragile line between good and evil in art? It is true that sometimes art is capable of bringing harm to the spiritual establishment of a clergyman and others around him. What topics can be dealt and should be dealt with today with the help of art, especially for younger people, who got used to entertainment and now decline participating in serious conversations about morals and spiritual values, patriotism and the like? There are many questions, but we would like to hear answers to them and to show creative search results of our heroes as much as possible. Each one of them has his own ultimate goal and what that goal is, depends on where that comma is to be placed in the phrase, which serves as a title to the film Serve Not Create. This is the first film attempting to shed light on this issue. Author: Yevgeny Kukarin |
