Preservationists race to save a century of Christian films - and build a home for them
If you've ever handled an old 16mm reel, you know the fear: the curl, the vinegar smell, the sense that a piece of history might not make it another year. That's the clock (movies and tv series) Gospel Films Archive says it's up against right now.
The group has spent more than a decade tracking down and restoring faith-based films made for churches and television - the stuff that didn't make it into studio vaults. They've opened a free, ad-free streaming site, the Gospel Films Library, and now they're asking for help to expand it and build a proper online museum.
What's new
Gospel Films Archive just launched a Kickstarter to fund 2026 operations and speed up preservation. The plan includes hiring a full-time museum director, boosting bandwidth as viewership grows, and buying a 4K film scanner with software to clean up lines and blemishes on old 16mm prints.
The endgame is the Gospel Films Museum - a living, searchable home for oral histories, interviews, scripts, posters, stills, and curated exhibit pages already previewed on the Gospel Films Archive site. Think of it as context around the films, not just the films themselves.
Why this matters
This is the other side of film history - the church-basement reels and Sunday-night TV specials that helped a generation learn Bible stories in moving pictures. These prints weren't built to last, and once the digital switch hit, most had nowhere to go.
Co-founder Bob Campbell (movies and tv series) put it plainly: "Much of the content cannot be found anywhere else on the planet and the cultural, historical and spiritual value is simply priceless." That's the pitch - save what's rare before it's gone.
What's in the archive
It's a mix: Old and New Testament stories, modern-era dramas, documentaries, biographies, episodic series, children's programs, and seasonal films. And you'll spot familiar faces - James Cagney (movies and tv series), DeForest Kelley (movies and tv series), James Mason (movies and tv series), Bob Hope (movies and tv series), Angie Dickinson (movies and tv series), Jerry Mathers (movies and tv series) - showing up in roles most people haven't seen.
These aren't Hollywood epics like "Ben-Hur." They're smaller productions made for congregations and broadcasters, which means they slipped through the cracks when studios preserved their catalogs and everyone else boxed up the projectors.
How the funds would be used
- Support 2026 operating costs for the library and museum buildout
- Hire a full-time director to lead museum development and curation
- Cover rising bandwidth as viewing grows
- Purchase a 4K film scanner and restoration software for cleaner transfers
The bigger picture
The team started in 2012 - three collectors and preservationists, Bob Campbell, Ron Hall (movies and tv series), and Derek Myers (movies and tv series) - after discovering just how much faith-focused film was sitting unclaimed. Since then, they've been hunting down prints, clearing rights, and making the work watchable again.
Here's the truth under all this: the history of Christian film isn't just about theology; it's about craft, community, and where a lot of Hollywood talent learned the ropes. Lose these films, and you lose the record of how stories were told in living rooms and fellowship halls for most of the twentieth century.
The ask
"We all can help rescue the history of Christian film and TV… please help GFL save them before they are gone forever," says Paul Sirmons, who leads the International Christian Visual Association. It's blunt because the timeline is blunt - film doesn't wait.
If you work in film, archives, education, or just care about cultural memory, this is one of those projects where a relatively small push can keep a lot of reels from turning to dust. And maybe open a door for students and researchers who've never seen any of this before.
Where to watch, where to help
You can stream the ad-free collection at the Gospel Films Library. Museum previews and exhibit concepts live on the Gospel Films Archive site.
To back the project or share it with your network, head to the Kickstarter campaign. Here's what this could mean: a rare slice of film history stays accessible - and teachable - for the next generation.
