Marjoe
Marjoe | |
---|---|
Directed by | Howard Smith Sarah Kernochan |
Produced by | Howard Smith Sarah Kernochan |
Starring | Marjoe Gortner |
Edited by | Lawrence Silk |
Distributed by | Cinema 5 Distributing |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Marjoe is a 1972 American
Story
Marjoe Gortner was a child preacher, who was popular in the American South starting in 1949. His parents earned large sums of money off of his preaching; Gortner speculated their take to be in the millions. The novelty of Gortner's youthfulness wore off at age 14, causing his father to leave. At 16, he decided to stop preaching and left his mother.[3]
Gortner rejoined the ministry as a young adult solely as a means of earning a living, not as a believer. He spent the next several years using his fame and status as an evangelist to earn a living from both tent revivals and televangelism. In his late 20s, Gortner suffered a crisis of conscience of sorts and decided to give up the revival circuit, but not any of the money he made from it. He offered a documentary film crew unrestricted access to him during his final revival tour, which took place in 1971.
The film contains scenes from revival meetings showing Gortner preaching and praying for people in
Release
At the time of the film's release, it generated considerable press, but the movie was not shown widely in theaters in the Southern United States. The distributor feared adverse reaction to the film in the Bible Belt.[3][5]
Soundtrack
A soundtrack was released by
Rediscovery and re-release
Although released on VHS, the film had long been out of print and had deteriorated.[8] In 2002 the negative and other elements were found in a vault in New York City.[3] The Academy Film Archive preserved Marjoe in 2005.[9] On November 15, 2005, in New York City, the IFC Center showed Marjoe[10] as the closing film in a series of documentaries called "Stranger Than Fiction". The restored film has since been released on DVD[11] and streaming services.
Awards
The film won the
See also
References
- ^ Spirituality & Practice
- ^ 1973|Oscars.org
- ^ a b c "Resurrecting 'Marjoe'". Sarah Kernochan. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- ^ "'Marjoe' (Published 2006)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-02-04.
- ^ "Marjoe". Horror Drive-in.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
Though Marjoe (the documentary) won an Academy Award, its release was limited. The distributor didn't wish to start a backlash in the deep south Bible Belt.
- ^ Marjoe - Original Soundtrack|AllMusic
- ^ Marjoe: Original Soundtrack, Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan, producers. Warner BS 2667 (1072)
- ^ "Sarah Kernochan - Documentaries". www.sarahkernochan.com. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ "Preserved Projects: Marjoe". Academy Film Archive. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ DVD Talk
- ^ Documentary Winners: 1973 Oscars