The Common Good

Gareth Higgins

Gareth Higgins is a writer and broadcaster from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who has worked as an academic and activist. He is the author of How Movies Helped Save My Soul: Finding Spiritual Fingerprints in Culturally Significant Films. He blogs at www.godisnotelsewhere.wordpress.com and co-presents “The Film Talk” podcast with Jett Loe at www.thefilmtalk.com. He is also a Sojourners contributing editor and executive director of the Wild Goose Festival. Originally from Northern Ireland, he lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Blog Posts by Gareth Higgins

In St. Patrick's Footsteps: Humor and Humanity
Posted by Gareth Higgins 1 year 9 weeks ago
Fifteen-hundred years ago, a Dublin-based shepherd made his mark on history by turning the Chicago River green, staggering inebriated through the city, and inventing the "Kiss Me I’m Irish" hat....
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Compassion, Destruction, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Posted by Gareth Higgins 1 year 38 weeks ago
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a surprising addition to the typical summer blockbuster canon -- for one thing, it manages to entertain and challenge, without resorting to gratuitous violence to...
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6 Films for a Meaningful Summer
Posted by Gareth Higgins 1 year 40 weeks ago
It's been a fabulous few weeks for movies -- at theaters and at home. There are images in the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris, recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, that are so...
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8 Inspiring Movies About Social Change
Posted by Gareth Higgins 1 year 47 weeks ago
Ah the joy of watching movies in the summer! Of course, there are a number of summer blockbusters coming out that will woo crowds to the theaters, but with the sky-high prices of theater tickets...
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Bloody Sunday and Telling the Truth
Posted by Gareth Higgins 2 years 48 weeks ago
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Articles by Gareth Higgins

Paved with Good Intentions
June 1, 2013

The beginning of wisdom proposed in the best documentaries is simply this: telling the truth, to ourselves and others, as best as we can.

A True Contender
May 1, 2013

The new Criterion BluRay edition of On the Waterfront not only offers the crispest representation of the 1954 New Jersey dockyard visuals any of us have ever seen, it also illustrates the sociopolitical and creative context in a manner richer than any previously released.

Time to Start Talking
April 1, 2013

There is an overwhelming need for publicly compelling conversation about violence, guns, and the role of entertainment media.

Oscars and the Big Picture
March 1, 2013

We shouldn't really expect the Oscars to grasp the point of history, though this year the films nominated for Best Picture are a fascinating snapshot of what ails—and could heal—us.

Top 10 of 2012
February 1, 2013

Here's my list of the best films released in 2012.

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