Nathan Lang’s latest film poses profound questions

Nathan Lang started his career as a broadcast journalist. After interviewing people on the street and getting a feel for what it was like to peer into the minds of strangers, he became inspired.

“Five years ago, I was thinking to myself, ‘What was this image of God,’” Lang said. “What does he look like and what does he look like to others?”

It’s a controversial question to ask. Some don’t believe in God, some staunchly believe in a God and others are still grappling with their conception of God.

Though Lang’s film God in the Box has no permanent release date, Lang’s film premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. at the ArcLight Hollywood. It was an official selection of the Heartland Film Festival and was voted as one of the 10 films selected to screen at the ArcLight Documentary Film Festival thanks to heavy votes from fans on the film’s YouTube trailer.

Stumbling randomly upon a situation that makes you face your views on an abstract belief can be pretty intimidating, but for Lang, that’s what fueled the film.

“Peering inside the mind’s eyes, I started getting these visions of this box in the streets of New York City and that was the inspiration,” Lang said.

Put yourself in that situation. Imagine stumbling upon a box bigger than a photo booth in the middle of the street, walking into the box and being completely alone with your thoughts as you search your mind for the answer to the question of what God means and looks like to you.

That’s exactly what Lang created for hundreds of random individuals when he put his large box on street corners all over the country.

Lang was intrigued by the idea that there was a group of people  rarely seen on television — the religious middle — and wanted to find a way to tell their stories.

“When you look at religious news today, you tend to see extremists,” Lang said. “The news tends to [publicize] anti-abortionists, but what you don’t see is all these incredible populations of people in the middle who are moderate and not extremists and have very reasonable ideas in their heads about what God means to them.”

Lang shows viewers a wide range of beliefs in the film that come to represent the enormity of the question itself.

It’s Lang’s first film and he managed to make it on what he called a “microbudget”: He partnered with Nick Calderone, Troy Browder and Jim Manley, all former journalists and current video producers, and used money out of his own pocket to set up a box in which people would give answers about what God meant to them on film.

Though Lang won’t reveal too much about his own religious views for fear of spoiling the film, he said seeing what others thought was truly fascinating.

“We explore the really abstract people who see God in ways that haven’t been pictured in art or literature,” Lang said. “Some see it as abstract descriptions like energy or love … there are people who are spiritual people, but don’t necessarily believe in the description of God that they’ve been taught in their religion.”

Lang stressed he’s not looking to challenge any religious institutions with this film, or take one side over the other. What he’s hoping to do is start a conversation that delves into the true feelings people are often afraid to share.

“There are so many of us with questions in the [religious] middle that we find it comforting to see [experts] who say it’s ok to have questions,” Lang said. “To be able to experience these feelings and explore these questions of God and not feel cornered about is really one of the great characteristics of the film.”