About the Actor
Craig Detweiler is a filmmaker, author, and cultural commentator who's been featured in The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. Films he has written include The Duke (1999) for Disney's Buena Vista and the comedic road trip, ExtremeDays (2001). His one-hour documentary, Williams Syndrome: A Highly Musical Species (1996), premiered at the Boston Film Festival, won a Cine Golden Eagle, the Silver Award at WorldFest Charleston, Best Documentary at the Carolina Film and Video Fest, and the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. Craig co-directs the Reel Spirituality Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His first book, A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, connects the dots between movies, music, TV and the divine. It has been adopted as the standard text in the field of theology and pop culture on college campuses around the world. Craig grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Davidson College and earned an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema/TV. Craig just completed his Ph.D. in Theology and Culture from Fuller Seminary. His dissertation, Soul Meets Body: Faith in the Internet Movie Database, will be published in 2008. Craig and his wife, Caroline, live in Los Angeles, with their children, Zoe and Theo. John Marks is a novelist, journalist and a former 60 Minutes producer. His first novel, The Wall, was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1998. His second, War Torn, made Publishers Weekly's Best of 2003. His third novel, Fangland, appeared in January 2007 and has been optioned for a feature film by Hilary Swank. His 60 Minutes segment 'Submission', about the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, received a 2006 Gracie Allen award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television for Best Hard News Feature. John's first work of non-fiction, Reasons to Believe, a portrait of American Christianity, will be published by the Ecco Press, an imprint of Harper Collins, in February 2008. John, 44, grew up in Dallas, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in German from Davidson College and a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa's Iowa Writers Workshop. He currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with his wife, Debra, and his son, Joe. Purple State of Mind is both Craig and John's feature documentary directing debut.
Product Description
Welcome to a conversation between two old friends. Welcome to a real conversation about the things that divide - and unite - all of us: our memories, our identities, our beliefs, our choices. Craig Detweiler and John Marks have known each other for twenty five years. When they roomed together as college sophomores, they were devout Christians. It was Craig's first year in the faith, John's last. After graduation, they parted ways, and when they met again years later, they never talked about what had happened. Until now. Their conversation starts as a bull session between pals and becomes a story about how people make friends, and lose them; how people change, how they grow, and how they deal with the big stuff: death, sex, the meaning of life, God. The conversation between Craig and John captures in all its intimacy and difficulty a one-on-one reckoning between two people who want to understand each other but without compromising their personal beliefs. At a time when our country is increasingly divided over questions of faith, spirituality, morality and the very meaning of life, here s a film that says welcome - to a new way of talking, a new meeting of the mind and heart. Welcome to a Purple State of Mind.