Heaven on Earth

In the heart of Branson, Missouri — the Las Vegas of the Bible Belt — evangelical entertainers wrapped God, country, and commerce into one seamless package.

Heaven on Earth is a 50-minute documentary I shot on Super 16mm film in 1998 and completed in 2001. It follows a cast of charismatic performers and audiences swept up in a patriotic Christian spectacle — and reveals how faith, nationalism, and entertainment merged to sell a very specific American dream.

When HEAVEN ON EARTH was released, it won numerous awards and aired on television across Europe, but it was rarely screened in the United States. Today, in the age of MAGA and the rise of Christian Nationalism, its message feels more urgent than ever.

That’s why we will be re-releasing HEAVEN ON EARTH in a new 4K version in early-2026. This will be your chance to see such colorful figures as USO pin-up girl Jennifer Wilson, country music star Barbara Fairchild, boy wonder Matthew Matney, and, of course, Jesus Christ himself in the bombastic musical “The Promise” in the finest possible quality.

Mixing show numbers, interviews, and behind the scenes shots, HEAVEN ON EARTH weaves a dense portrait of the making of the Christian Nationalist myth. The film climaxes with the largest Veteran’s Day celebration in the United States, including a rare, chilling interview with General Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, in which he reflects upon his dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

HEAVEN ON EARTH is a personal documentary about my quest for the perfect America. After nearly ten years in Berlin, I have begun toying with the idea of returning to the United States. Until now, I haven’t known where to go. My chance encounter with Branson (my mother moved there in 1996) left me with ambivalent feelings about the U.S., and the image my homeland presents of itself. The mythical America I found in Branson struck me as both irresistible and horrifying – a nightmare vision of the fundamentalist, patriotic attitudes I fled a decade ago, but which continue to fascinate me even today. The culmination of my quest was clearly my interview with General Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay. His hair-raising account of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and how he “did the right thing,” was for me the ultimate tale of heroism which Branson likes to hold high — a kind of heroism which leaves me cold.

HEAVEN ON EARTH is my attempt to convey in an entertaining, ironic, yet disturbing manner my ambivalence, fascination and repulsion at the country where I spent the first twenty years of my life. In many ways, the patriotic fervor which has erupted throughout the United States following the terrorist attacks on September 11th has proven the fulfillment of the vision of America Branson propagates on stage and off.

– Rick Minnich, Berlin, Germany, May 2001