Is Genesis History? (film)

Is Genesis History? is a 2017 Christian young Earth creationist documentary film that shows that Genesis 1-11 records real history. Produced by Compass Cinema, the film stars Del Tackett, the former president of the Focus on the Family Institute and a key person in the Truth Project, "a DVD curriculum distributed by Focus on the Family" that teaches a strong biblical worldview.

While originally planned to be released in theaters for one showing on February 23, 2017, the film's showtime was extended also to March 2 and March 7, 2017. It was shown again in theaters on February 22, 2018, in even more theaters than before.

Trailer
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Synopsis
Is Genesis History? is hosted by Del Tackett. The film's main question, as the title shows, is whether the Book of Genesis in the Bible records real historical events. Tackett tackles many questions concerning Genesis 1-11 and its historical accuracy. In addition, he interviews 16 experts in various scientific or theological fields who all hold PhDs and are biblical creationists. Through these interviews, Tackett shows that an overwealming amount of evidence for a young Earth exists, as well as against the pseudoscientific theory of evolution.

Cast
All the scientists and scholars Tackett interviews have Ph.Ds, many of them from secular universities. Additionally, they all have done exemplary work in their respective fields. Here is the list of interviewed people:
 * Kevin Anderson, microbiologist
 * Steve Austin, geologist
 * Steven Boyd, Hebraist
 * Robert Carter, marine biologist
 * Art Chadwick, taphonomist
 * Danny Faulkner, astronomer
 * George Grant, pastor
 * Paul Nelson, philosopher of science
 * Douglas Petrovich, archaeologist
 * Marcus Ross, paleontologist
 * Andrew Snelling, geologist
 * Kurt Wise, paleontologist
 * Todd Wood, biologist

Scientists Larry Vardiman and Stuart Burgess and theologian Doug Kelly also were interviewed and are among the bonus features.

Release and success
Is Genesis History? was released for one night in theaters on February 23, 2017. It performed very well—143,000 people watched it in 704 theaters and many theaters were sold-out. Its box office on its opening night was $1,796,182 —the highest box office of any film in the United States that night,  more than five times the average of all other movies that night. Although originally scheduled to be shown only on one night, Is Genesis History? performed so well that it was given two encore showings on March 2 and 7 of that year. Altogether, including the two encore showings, 215,000 people bought tickets for the film, and the film earned a box office of $2,570,355. The movie was the second highest-grossing event – and the highest grossing movie – organized by Fathom Events in 2017, and it was one out of only six Fathom Events to gross over $2 million that year. The DVD and VOD of Is Genesis History? also made it into the top 10 lists of the iTunes Store Independent Films Chart (10th place) and Amazon's Best Selling Documentary list (4th place) by April 16, 2017. It was one of the most successful documentaries in 2017.

Is Genesis History? was shown in some Canadian theaters on March 14.

Is Genesis History? was later released on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD/Blu-ray release included bonus features, including interviews with scientists and other scholars that were not able to make it into the final film cut.

Is Genesis History? was shown again for a one-year anniversary event on February 22, 2018, being shown in over 850 theaters in the United States and showing a bonus scene of Wheaton College students at the Ark Encounter.

Other activities
The makers of Is Genesis History? decided to expand beyond the movie. In June 2017, the filmmakers held a conference for students and educators, and at the end of 2017, the filmmakers released a Bible study book based on the film.

Positive
The Christian apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis endorsed Is Genesis History? prior to its release. AiG's enthusiasm for the film did not decrease after its release in theaters. The words of AiG President Ken Ham on January 6, 2017: I’m thrilled to recommend the brand-new documentary-style film Is Genesis History?, coming to theaters Thursday, February 23, 2017, for one night only. This film delves into various scientific disciplines to see if the evidence confirms evolution and millions of years or creation in six days and the global Flood.

Other Christian creationists also highly reviewed the film. The Institute for Creation Research stated that "Dr. Tackett and Compass Media produced a high-quality documentary and took an unapologetic stand for a historical Genesis. Those of us at ICR who have seen the film wholly endorse it."

Jerry Newcombe, in WorldNetDaily, endorsed the film after conducting several interviews with participants in the film: It is my view that those who see "Is Genesis History?" – which is beautifully shot – will come away with the same conviction [as George Grant in the film on the importance of Genesis]. Perhaps, the tagline for the film says it all: "Two competing views … one compelling truth."

Jonathan Sarfati of Creation Ministries International highly endorsed the film, saying that "after the spectacular footage and important scientific and exegetical information, the documentary closes with a very effective explanation about why Genesis matters for the Christian faith."

Henry B. Smith of Associates for Biblical Research and Megan Basham of WORLD Magazine also strongly endorsed the film. Timothy G. Standish of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Geoscience Research Institute gave the film an overall positive review. In its list of the top 25 conservative documentaries in existence, Newsmax rated the film #12.

Anthony Hayes of the Baltimore Post-Examiner positively reviewed the film, stating that "Is Genesis History? succinctly lays out the scientific case for a special creation; then asks the question, 'How does a little information from the past affect how one lives today?'"

Negative
Other organizations that accept evolution and oppose biblical creation, such as The BioLogos Foundation, Reasons To Believe, and The Gospel Coalition, gave the film negative reviews. According to Gregg Davidson, Joel Duff, and Ken Wolgemuth of Biologos, despite the "excellent" cinematography of the film, "the narrative that accompanied the rich display of God’s amazing creation fell far short of reflecting what we actually find revealed in nature."

Paul Nelson, who was interviewed for the film, later published an article stating that the film distorted his arguments and presented "a false dichotomy" between naturalistic evolution and young Earth creationism while omitting other viewpoints. Thomas Purifoy, the film's director and producer, responded with a blog post entitled A Tale of Two Dichotomies in which he presented the full film interview with Nelson as evidence to the contrary of Nelson's statements, and Purifoy stated that "as a philosopher, Paul seemed to be shifting back to viewing things from a philosophical perspective. The film, however, was not about comparing two different philosophies, but two different histories."

Background
Is Genesis History? was first conceived when the daughter of Thomas Purifoy Jr., the film's director, started asking him questions on the creation/evolution topic after the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate in February 2014. Purifoy read dozens of books on the creation/evolution topic, many of which he recommended, for the film.

Film's resources

 * Videos, on the film's website
 * Downloads, on the film's website
 * Partial list of full interviews, more to come