René Girard: The Movie. It's here! Literally!

Message from filmmaker Sam Sorich: "After you’ve had a chance to watch this, please like, subscribe, and comment on the Youtube page, which will help get the film out to more people."

I asked filmmaker Sam Sorich about the beginnings of this film:

Long story short, in the summer going into my senior year of high school I had a conversion at a youth group retreat. I turned down a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago to enter seminary as a college freshman.

Until that time I had considered myself a creative, artsy type and just like all my peers had developed a strong aversion to conformity, which didn’t blend well with the rigidity of seminary formation. Seminary, I quickly discovered, is not a place to explore questions about your faith—yet I had plenty of them. Unsatisfied, I found myself deconstructing my newfound religion and within three years had become a reluctant atheist. It was all very traumatic, as I was sincere but I clearly needed to do more soul searching. I bought a one-way ticket to Europe and during my travels, I stumbled upon a book titled Christ and Postmodern Philosophy. This was my first encounter with René Girard’s theory, and I was blown away as it actually grappled with and took serious modernist objections to Christianity in a way that was incredibly novel and convincing.

I continued reading Girard throughout my time in college, and with my background in filmmaking, which I had pursued since my youth, I began to dream about interviewing Girard for a documentary. At the time, I didn’t realize he was already advanced in years and unable to give interviews. When he passed away in November 2015, I read obituary after obituary describing him as one of the most important thinkers of our time. Yet, there was very little accessible media about him.

Motivated by this lack, I started cold-calling people associated with Girard. That marked the beginning of a globetrotting journey to create a project that would bring his life and ideas to a wider audience. Luckily, I was not alone on this journey. I was supported every step of the way by the wider Girardian community, as well as my close collaborator Trevor Merrill, who really pushed me to become a better filmmaker and artist.

We decided to release the film for free on Christmas Day, as a way to honor Girard’s shared birthday with the one in whom he never ceased pointing to.