In Wonderfully Made: LGBTQ+R(eligion), a soon-to-be-released documentary, actor and director Yuval David explores the stories of LGBTQ+ people of faith and their relationship with the Church.
Working on the theme of inclusivity, David sets out to create an image of Christ that will allow LGBTQ+ believers to feel a greater sense of belonging in the church. In an interview with amNewYork Metro, he recounted a discussion with his Catholic husband, David himself is Jewish.
“He expressed to me feelings of there not necessarily being a place for him in the same way as there was a place for straight people. Through conversations with him and through a photo art project I was doing simultaneously, I realized this rejection was a significant gap in the fullness of his life,” he said.
The depiction imagines Christ as a member or ally of the LGBTQ+ community. On the importance of the image he created, David said:
“I’m the person who wants to make everybody accepted, feel included, feel loved, and cherished and I felt I could help people feel seem and create something they could share.”
The film traces the experience of LGBTQ+ Catholic groups and the members of the clergy who are seeing to increase the dialogue between the church and the community. Fr James Martin and Sister Jeanine Gramick get a particular mention.
Martin authored Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, compassion, and Sensitivity, in which he outlines why the church should “stop seeing the LGBT community as ‘the other'”. Gramick, who has been involved in LGBTQ+ outreach since the 70s, co-founded the New Ways Ministry, a social justice advocacy group.
No set release date yet, the Wonderfully Made will be the first of a series of films tackling “faith traditions and LGBTQ+ identities”.
