Parable · making films since 2011
Short films of the stories Jesus told
We film the parables with local actors and crews, check every script with Bible scholars, and give the films away in more than 140 languages, so a youth group, a Sunday school or a family on a couch can watch one and talk about Jesus.
From the studio
New this month
The Prophets, episode 3: Jonah
A reluctant prophet, a storm and a city God refused to give up on. With a twelve-minute discussion guide.
Watch episode 3
Free for Easter
A film night kit for Holy Week
The Two Sons, an outline for a short talk, five questions and slides. Churches used it in 600 towns last year.
Get the kitA question we get a lot
“Are the films really free?”
Yes. Watch them, download them, play them on Sunday morning. About four thousand monthly patrons pay for every film, because these stories were never ours to sell. Jesus told them to anyone who would listen, and we want to do the same.
How the studio is funded
How churches use the films
Watch
Browse the films
Pick a film. Most are under twenty minutes, so you can watch one at the start of a group and still have an hour left.
Browse the films →Talk
Get the questions
Every film comes with five questions written by a pastor. The last one always asks what the story says about Jesus.
Get the questions →Share
Plan a film night
Send a film to a friend who wouldn’t come to church, or show one at a neighbourhood film night with popcorn.
Plan a film night →The library
Series to watch together
About us
It started with a borrowed camera in 2011
Sam was a youth pastor who couldn’t get his students to read Luke 15. He borrowed a camera from one of their dads and filmed the Prodigal Son in a parking garage, with a student as the younger son. They shared it with everyone they knew.
Today about thirty people work with writers, actors and crews in fourteen countries. Sam still reads every script, and every film still ends where the parable points: to a Father who runs out to meet us.
Read our storyWe showed The Two Sons on a bedsheet in the church yard. Afterwards an old man asked if the father in the story would really take his son back. Our pastor said yes, and he sat with him until midnight.
Grace, who runs a church film night in her town
Help make the next film
Patrons give monthly and see each film first. A minute of finished film costs about $100, and subtitles in a new language about $15.