I originally liked this movie.
I am a student of Christian revival, as I am praying and working for revival myself, and this movie filled in some missing information for me regarding one of the few movements in modern times that comes close to being a revival. I watched it three times, paying very close attention to what might be useful to me and others who have a heart for bringing people to Jesus.
I was grateful for this documentary, until the same writer/director came out with his next documentary film, Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman. This film cast doubt on the integrity of the filmmaker and consequently cast doubt (for me) on the credibility of his first film, Frisbee.
You see, I was a close personal friend of Larry Norman and his family for the last 30 years of his life, and can personally attest to the character of David Di Sabatino's work. In his movie about Larry Norman he clearly had an agenda to convey a particular storyline about Larry and set out to manufacture support for his views. Not only did he not include diverging viewpoints (that is, anything that portrayed Larry in a favorable light), but he ignored contradictory evidence and eyewitness testimony when it was offered to him, and he even spliced together statements from those who appeared in the film to make them sound worse than they were. In short, it was a hit piece.
I didn't know Lonny Frisbee, and was not around to see the historical events of that Calvary Chapel movement unfold. I am entirely dependent on the integrity of those who would tell what happened, that I might trust their words and their work. I have absolutely no confidence in this filmmaker to tell the truth. In fact, I have ample reason to think he uses his work to try to distort the truth for his personal agenda.
I am a student of Christian revival, as I am praying and working for revival myself, and this movie filled in some missing information for me regarding one of the few movements in modern times that comes close to being a revival. I watched it three times, paying very close attention to what might be useful to me and others who have a heart for bringing people to Jesus.
I was grateful for this documentary, until the same writer/director came out with his next documentary film, Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman. This film cast doubt on the integrity of the filmmaker and consequently cast doubt (for me) on the credibility of his first film, Frisbee.
You see, I was a close personal friend of Larry Norman and his family for the last 30 years of his life, and can personally attest to the character of David Di Sabatino's work. In his movie about Larry Norman he clearly had an agenda to convey a particular storyline about Larry and set out to manufacture support for his views. Not only did he not include diverging viewpoints (that is, anything that portrayed Larry in a favorable light), but he ignored contradictory evidence and eyewitness testimony when it was offered to him, and he even spliced together statements from those who appeared in the film to make them sound worse than they were. In short, it was a hit piece.
I didn't know Lonny Frisbee, and was not around to see the historical events of that Calvary Chapel movement unfold. I am entirely dependent on the integrity of those who would tell what happened, that I might trust their words and their work. I have absolutely no confidence in this filmmaker to tell the truth. In fact, I have ample reason to think he uses his work to try to distort the truth for his personal agenda.