An American filmmaker and self-described “cultural missionary” travels to India in the footsteps of his great-grandparents Spenser & Eva – who were Christian missionaries there seventy years earlier – in search of their common roots as missionaries, peacemakers, and bridge builders.
Documentary, 4K, stereo, color, ca. 80 min.
Spenser & Eva (work-in-progress)
“Spenser & Eva” is a love story about my great-grandparents Spenser and Eva, who traveled across Europe, Asia and Africa as Christian missionaries from the 1920 through the 1960s.
Spenser and Eva were lovebirds who lived and worked together for nearly seventy years. They were the first people in my family to travel the world, and infected me with their stories. Spenser was an accomplished photographer and filmmaker, who left behind a treasure trove of photos, audio recordings and 8mm and 16mm films. Eva wrote extensive diaries during their travels along with hundreds of love letters to Spenser during their periods of separation. I have inherited it all.
Although I am not particularly religious, I have come to see myself as a cultural missionary following in Spenser and Eva’s footsteps. But instead of a Bible, I travel the world with my camera in search of stories which, in one way or another, celebrate what unites us humans rather than what drives us apart.
In “Spenser & Eva”, I will retrace my great-grandparents path through India and Europe and some of the other countries in Asia and Africa where they were active, in search of remnants of their missionary work. What lasting organizations, churches, schools did they help build? How did they introduce or strengthen Christianity, build bridges and promote peace in these regions? Did they help improve life for the communities where they worked, or were they actually cogs in the colonialist machine which caused more harm than good in many parts of the world?
