In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.
Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
Terence Knapp plays Father Damien in this TV adaptation of the stage play. Damien goes to Hawaii in the late 1800s to care for lepers. Now deceased from leprosy, Father Damien appears as a spirit recounting his life as his funeral procession is carried out.
A missionary’s wife questions her needs to "save souls" after finding solace in her new friendship with a Ngarrindjeri woman.
Christian, a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce Aaron, a sexually confused Mormon missionary who moves into his apartment complex.
A drive-by shooting in Venice, California, changes the lives of five people forever. States of Grace tells the story of a homeless street preacher, Louis, a gang banger, Carl, an aspiring actress, Holly, and two young missionaries, Lozano and Farrell, in what critics have hailed as one of the finest films of the year and one of the best Christian-themed films ever made.
Life as a Mormon missionary isn't what 19-year-old Brandon Allen expected: so many rules and so few successes. Los Angeles is as unrepentant as Sodom and Gomorrah. He's forced to share a small apartment with five young prank-loving missionaries and, to top it off, his first companion, 29-year-old Marcus Dalton, proves to be a harsh mentor. After only one day as a missionary, Allen is ready to hang up his necktie and go home. Allen becomes a part of the drama occurring under the everyday surface of missionary life. After only a few intense days, Allen finds faith he didn't know he had, and courage he didn't know he lacked. He learns that the time has come to put away childish things, and to become more than just a man--to become a man of God.
John H. Groberg, a middle class kid from Idaho Falls, crosses the Pacific to become a Mormon missionary in the remote and exotic Tongan island kingdom during the 1950's. He leaves behind a loving family and the true love of his life, Jean. Through letters and musings across the miles, John shares his humbling and sometimes hilarious adventures with "the girl back home", and her letters buoy up his spirits in difficult times. John must struggle to overcome language barriers, physical hardship and deep-rooted suspicion to earn the trust and love of the Tongan people he has come to serve. Throughout his adventure-filled three years on the islands, he discovers friends and wisdom in the most unlikely places. John H. Groberg's Tongan odyssey will change his life forever.
A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
A Swiss nun falls in love with a Japanese engineer.
Paradise Found is a biography about the painter Paul Gauguin. Focusing on his personal conflict between citizen life and his family life and the art scene in Frane. In an incredible imagery montage Gauguin manages to make a successful living in the South Pacific, while being in opposition to France.
Two young Mormons, John and Darla, meet one evening in a video outlet that rents "edited, cleaned-up" versions of movies. They hit it off, share a lot of time together, and some weeks later John proposes marriage. Darla explains that her parents have asked her to only marry a man who has served a religious mission for the LDS Church, and he immediately pledges to become a missionary to allow their dream of a future together to be possible. After 3 months in the mission field, John moves to a new apartment with three other elders. Elder White has just received a "Dear John" letter from his girlfriend after a year away from home. The other elders got their letters at 6 months and 8 months respectively. John tells them that he will never get such a letter, but back home Darla is showing off her wedding dress to her girlfriends the day before her marriage to somebody else, and is explaining about her "romance" with John. However, in her rationalization, John is a socially inept klutz.
All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was the place where she belonged. Not qualified to be sent there as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn the money to send herself to a poor, remote village. There she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as "foot inspector", advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed race Captain Lin Nan. But Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives. Based on a true story.
An American missionary is gradually seduced by a courtly warlord holding her in Shanghai.
A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.
Sadie Thompson winds up stranded on an island and while her boat is being quarantined, she manages to stir up the blood of every marine on the base.
When things are not going well for John Taylor, he reads his journal and reflects on his missionary life and his companion Elder Alma Johnson. They try to teach people about the gospel and want to give lessons, but the people are not interested. They do teach a lady named Melissa, but does not think she can be baptized. The other missionaries try to make life bearable by having fun and living together. Finally, Melissa learns the lessons of the gospel and knows the church is true and gets baptized.
Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, before the natives murdered them all. They are sent by the pompous Leslie Huben, who runs the missionary effort in the area but who seems more concerned about competing with his Catholic 'rivals' than in the Indians themselves. Hazel is terrified of the Indians while Martin is fascinated. Soon American pilot Lewis Moon joins the Indian tribe but is attracted by Leslie's young wife, Andy. Can the interaction of these characters and cultures, and the advancing bulldozers of civilization, avoid disaster?
After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.