“Part of the Kingdom,” the documentary released by John Brown University digital cinema student Makenna Cofer in December 2020 and featured in the 2021 Fayetteville Film Festival, will return to our screens for its second part by the end of the summer. Cofer announced the project via Instagram, where she shared the teaser for the upcoming documentary and disclosed her objective for what she refers to as “an expansion of Part of the Kingdom.”
For “Part of the Kingdom: Volume II” – its working title – Cofer shifted from her previous approach. In part one, she explored the experiences of queer believers in a non-affirming space. In that case, her focus was on JBU, which widely implements a traditional interpretation of Scripture. In the sequel, Cofer focuses on affirming spaces and how they impact the lives of queer Christians.
Cofer, in an interview with The Threefold Advocate, described in detail what the film will look like.
“The center of this project is Scripture,” she said. “I am focusing on the theological core of the division between affirming and non-affirming Christians.”
Filming will take place outside of JBU, in churches and ministries, to capture the feel of being outside of the JBU bubble. “We’re working with Grace Episcopal Church here in Siloam, and I look to compare the experience of queer people within an affirming church like Grace Episcopal and non-affirming environments.” While mainly focusing on the selected churches, there are also going to be college students and alumni participating in the film.
“There has been a decent number of students who want to talk. Many students from other universities, alumni from JBU and locals. The format for students’ participation will remain the same as the first part. Visually, we will bring them from the dark, out of the darkness into the light with lightning work.”
The decision to film Volume II come easily for Cofer. The production of the first one had been, while fulfilling, a very draining and demanding experience. Cofer and her team needed a break before starting filming again. Still, Cofer knew that it was going to happen soon. She finished her senior project last semester to reserve space to create another documentary while at JBU. “I think that with creative things, you feel haunted by your work until you do it. Everything was pushing me in that direction. After months thinking about it, I just had to do it. I also had resources and other classmates that wanted to participate. It felt like the right time as all the pieces were coming together,” Cofer explained.
Cofer received a lot of support to embark on this project. The school administration gave Cofer the green light to expand the project outside the JBU realm. Colleagues and close friends have encouraged her and supported her throughout the project. She is also gathering a different team to work with.
“My director of photography is Boston Morgan,” Cofer said. “He is also a senior cinema major. We are still recruiting some other cinema majors as we go.”
Cofer’s approach to this second film came from a lot of research and a great passion to start a conversation about such a broad topic.
“There is this quote from Matthew Vines, author of the book ‘God and the Gay Christian,’ that reads, ‘Increasingly, even for Christians who affirmed the Bible’s full authority, the traditional understanding has become harder to accept. Especially for young believers, the trouble starts when you put names, faces, and outcomes to what the traditional interpretation means in practice.’ So, I am digging into that traditional interpretation of Scripture and looking at the ramifications of that while still exposing Church atmospheres, like Grace Episcopal, who are affirming, and what it looks like for queer believers to be in an environment with more progressive interpretations of Scripture and how being affirmed influences their experience,” said Cofer.
The project also promotes civil dialogue, featuring both perspectives of these conversations and encourages people to step into that tension.
For Cofer, though, her goal is for these documentaries to continue to act as a platform for queer people. “My goal for this is not to solve any of these issues, it is just to ask questions and to approach this with curiosity, and so I hope that other people are able to approach it with curiosity and receptiveness. I hope for queer Christians, wanting to pursue the faith, to know that affirming places are available for them if that is what they are looking for. Not every Christian space is going to turn you away from the faith.”
“Part of the Kingdom: Volume II” is currently in production and is expected to be out by summer after Cofer graduates. Nonetheless, this is not the end of this project. Cofer hopes to work as a documentary filmmaker and make “Part of the Kingdom” into a series. “There are so many different angles that we can talk about in this conversation.”