Here’s the opening scene from “El Tonto por Cristo,” which was screened at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on Feb 9, 2026.
Here’s how this movie was described in the evening’s Program:
El Tonto por Cristo is a visually striking, black-and-white cinematic meditation from award-winning filmmaker Josh David Jordan. Set within the quiet, rhythmic mundanity of a remote Texas monastery, the film explores a diverse brotherhood of misfits who have abandoned the world for a life of repentance.
As the first English-language Orthodox narrative feature of its kind, the film serves as a “cinematic pilgrimage,” weaving together Orthodox imagination with a transcendent style to find beauty in the broken. The film’s ethereal atmosphere is underscored by a sweeping score from Michael Paraskevas, featuring the haunting sounds of The Polyphonic Spree choir and the Cathedral Choir of St. Seraphim.
After the movie, Executive Producer Jonathan Pageau and director Josh David Jordan discussed some of the themes. BTW Jonathan is not wearing a Burger King crown. Gold paper crowns (you can see several more in the audience) were handed out on the way into the theater, like the one that, at one point in the movie, adorns the abbot’s head.Me with director Josh David Jordan. Some people are really tall!
When I somehow got invited to join a Zoom conversation about this film, I was immediately a big fan—even though not a frame had yet been shot. I loved the whole idea of it. At the end of the Zoom I said, “By the way, if you need a granny, give me a call.” And about a week later they did! I flew out to Dallas in time for the second day of shooting. Immensely enjoyable.
Dn Seraphim Richard Rohlin is another Executive Producer. I’m saying “Where are they getting all these tall people?”Talking with Fr. Michael, a monk of St. Demetrios Monastery in Spotsylvania VA, who had been a parishioner at Holy Cross Church before my husband retired.The big reveal! This is what a red carpet actually looks like.Happy to catch up with Jonathan Pageau after the movie. We are two smile-y people.With my sweetheart, Fr. Gregory Mathewes-Green. I’m so glad we came.Director Josh David Jordan and hobbits.
I can’t really explain why, but I got fascinated with the art of moviemaking very young. I was maybe 12 when I came across The Movies in my parents’ library, and read it over and over again. The book began with the earliest silents (like the 1896 The Kiss, 18 seconds long), and made its way to the edgy current films of the 1960s. I longed to see these movies. There was no way to do that; (scrolling backward through time here) no streaming, no DVDs, no Netflix, no Blockbuster, no VHS, no cable TV. Nothing but the local movie theaters and three predictable TV networks, where I might occasionally come across something like The Bad Seed (terrifying!) in the wee hours. Thinking, “It sounds like the Marx Brothers movies were really funny. I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to see one.”
Maybe what grabbed me was that film was a brand-new art form, which human ingenuity could use to create unprecedented kinds of art. Way back in 1970, as a freshman, I wrote a letter to the college president urging him to establish a Film Studies major—not filmmaking, which we already had, but the study of great and intriguing films from all times and places, like we study literature and other arts. The machine got moving, and by graduation, half my English-major credits were in film studies.
PS here’s the soundtrack double album. Golden crown in action!
